Curbed Cup Elite Eight: (10) Hollywood vs. (2) Koreatown

The Curbed Cup, our annual award for the neighborhood of the year, is kicking off with 16 neighborhoods vying for the prestigious (fake) trophy. We’ll reveal each of the neighborhoods this week, and polls will be open for 24 hours so you can cast your vote as to which ones should advance. Let the eliminations commence!

Hollywood

Hollywood has an established reputation for being a neighborhood where a lot of developers have big plans, and this year we saw a continuation of that. Amoeba Music could disappear within two years, to be replaced by a 28-story residential tower. (The music mecca has said it will try to find a new home in Hollywood.)

Boutique hotels, larger, 21-story hotels, and so many new apartments have been proposed. At the same time, the delayed Millennium Hollywood project next to Capitol Records made a play to get built quickly, looking for exemption from the lengthy environmental review process.

Hollywood’s set to get yet another private club: the London-based H Club will open a new outpost inside what used to be the Redbury Hotel.

Hollywood’s not just about the new, though. Structures from Hollywood’s past had a pretty good year too. The 97-year-old John Anson Ford Amphitheatre reopened this year after a $72.2-million makeover, and the Hollywood Reporter building was named a city landmark.

Koreatown

If we had one word to sum up Koreatown, it might be “overwhelming.” The busy neighborhood has so much to see and do, it can be hard to decide where to start.

A trip to the spa? A bit of bulgogi? Dumplings? Soondae? Maybe you’d prefer to catch a show at the Wiltern? Or drive golf balls into a big net right off Wilshire Boulevard?

Koreatown packs a lot into a relatively small area, and now developers are trying to pack dozens of new projects into that same space. Among the highlights: a condo and hotel project next to the historic Wilshire Galleria, a museum (with housing attached) dedicated to Korean American culture and history, and a massive mixed-use project partly developed by the county.

The walkable neighborhood is already home to three subway stations and iconic Los Angeles landmarks like the Bullocks Wilshire Building, the soaring Wilshire Boulevard Temple, and, of course, Jerry Seinfeld’s apartment building.