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WeHo Could Get an Elaborate Mixed-User at SaMo and Melrose

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A trio of new mixed-users on the edge of West Hollywood has inched forward, with city planners giving the green-light Thursday night, WeHoville reports. The Melrose Triangle project, from developer Charles Company and architect Studio One Eleven, would seriously reinvent the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard, Melrose, and Almont Avenue, with 76 housing units (15 for low- and moderate-income folks) in a five-story building, retail, restaurants, and office space, plus a whopping 884 parking spaces in four underground levels. According to the architect's site, "The space between buildings has been carefully crafted to create paseos, plazas, and courtyards that invite pedestrians to pass through the project and contribute to the ambience of the development."

The project would likely require the demolition of a 1928 Streamline Moderne building that's mostly hidden behind trees right now, but preservationists are gearing up to fight that move. The West Hollywood Preservation Association wants the building incorporated into the design and an independent report recommends ripping it out and moving it somewhere else (sure). "If this building was in South Beach, there would be a giant, gay riot to save this building," said Roy Oldenkamp, WHPA's vice president, of the building, which was renovated in 1938 by notable LA architects Walter Wurdeman and Welton Becket. "There is not going to be any such riot because of a lethargic community."
· WeHo Planning Commission Approves Melrose Triangle Project [WeHoville]