Co-editor Josh (pictured above) is finally back from his long sojourn below the equator, but we're still answering R&B in his stead. This week you had a lot of questions on the status of old projects, and rather than finding answers, we thought it was more fun to watch the B school flame war erupt. Not quite as amusing as the old New York/LA Donut Wars, however. So it's a light week for questions, an even lighter one for answers.
1) Hollywood: You wondered about "the massive Mediterranean monstrosity of a house that has sat incomplete at the top of Runyon Canyon (Maybe at the end of Solar Dr or Astral Dr)." Smashed windows, squatters, bankruptcy - this place has it all. Commenter mj tells us "the runyon canyon house has been up for a number of years. the original developer ran out of money and never completed it. everyone sued, he declared bankruptcy and it has been there (bk court) ever since. i don't think it got a c of o on the property so new owner would probably have to bring it up to current code." And commenter dps seems to have found the listing. Only $12.9 million for the Mediterranean Monstrosity! Squatters come free.
2) West Hollywood: We're pretty sure we get asked this at least once every six months. We're not even sure what it is anymore. "What the heck is going on with the Sunset Millennium project in WeHo? The City approved the project in April 2005, and the "Latest News" section of the project website hasn't been updated since April 2006. Last I heard they were going to break ground on the project (which includes condos, W and Marriott hotels) end of '06, but clearly that hasn't happened. Is this dying a slow death? The vacant ugly buildings straddling La Cienega are starting to get on my nerves--where's our WeHo Wonderproject??" At this point, your guess is as good as ours.
3) Atwater Village: Ok, technically, this one is actually Glassell Park, according to semprini. You asked "Any idea what is going on at the future L.A. City College Campus at the Van De Kamp’s building in Atwater?" semprini also lets us know "Hot off the wire: the LACC folk are considering a plan that would utilize the VDK building for a 400-ish student capacity satellite site and would use the rest of the site for housing with a bit of commercial along SF Rd. Still very conceptual at this point. Call me cranky if you like, but damn I'm useful." AV Newbie (and Curbed editor) also points us to this article, that explains the ongoing delays and $12 million budget shortfall. Whoops.
What else did we learn this week? Oh yes, B School is a joke, and a Masters in Public Administration is even worse.
Got a couple more questions? Once Josh finishes his soak and towels off, he'll be back to posting your questions. Let him have it.