Mortgages: Another Foreclosure Alternative
With small sales beyond the reach of some homeowners, another foreclosure alternative is emerging: “deeds in lieu of foreclosure.”
CurbedWire: With Beverly Hills Meeting, Broad Museum Battle Hits Defcon 1 Level
Site of the plotted museum
BEVERLY HILLS: A tipster lets us know that next Tuesday’s Beverly Hills City Council meeting includes a closed door negotiating session to discuss 9848 Wilshire Boulevard, which has always been the site of Eli Broad’s proposed art museum*. At one point, even some sort of schematic-looking things were drawn up for this site. The agenda notes that both the price and terms of payment for the site will be discussed at the meeting. As Santa Monica and downtown are also looking to land Broad’s museum, those cities might want to step up their game right about now. Apparently, Broad is not thinking of the children. [Curbed Inbox]
Last One With the Noise Loses: All the area airports love playing…
All the area airports like playing hot potato with noisy aircraft. Van Nuys Airport has won this round; the City Council tentatively approved an ordinance today that phases out the loudest kinds of jets at the airport over seven years. And guess where those loud jets end up! They will “likely be diverted to five other airports: LAX, Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, the Camarillo and Chino airports and General Fox Airfield,” says the LA Daily News. [LADN]
Architects: Memphis Lays Claim to LA’s Paul Williams With Eponymous Project
Paul Williams and the Lafayette Square house he built for his family in 1952 via the Paul R. Williams Project
The American Institute of Architects, Memphis chapter and the University of Memphis have launched the Paul R. Williams Project, to collect and share knowledge about the first black member of the AIA. Williams was born in Los Angeles and primarily practiced in Southern California, but Memphis claims him with a “historical interest,” because his parents were from the city and because he designed the St. Jude Research Hospital there.
The project website encourages Williams study with a huge gallery of his work and a bibliography of publications about the architect. An exhibition called Paul R. Williams, Architect: The Power of Example will open in Memphis in the fall, and will start traveling in 2012. It “focuses on Williams’ leadership in the design of buildings for 20th American century life and his vital role as an African-American in the architectural profession and in the civic life of his time,” with new and ancient photographs, models, film, and interactive parts. The project also helps K-12 teachers incorporate architecture education into their curricula.
· Paul Revere Williams Project [Official Site]
· Paul Williams Archives [Curbed LA]
Wonder City of the West: Hidden Los Angeles has dug up…
Hidden Los Angeles has dug up a 1935 small film by James A. Fitzpatrick called The Wonder City of the West all about how awesome our honest city is. Hear the narrator’s enthusiastic declaration: “Wilshire Boulevard is a fine example of the many grand boulevards that reach out from the heart of Los Angeles like the arms of a gigantic octopus, embracing newer suburbs such as Pasadena and Hollywood, which have grown so rapidly that they too have become cities by their own right within the tremendous county of Los Angeles.” [Hidden Los Angeles]
Regional Connector: Downtown Connector Study Excitement: Underground Option Added
At Metro’s board meeting yesterday, the transit agency made nice with the folks of Small Tokyo by adding their preferred alternative to the environmental impact report for the Regional Connector line, which will link up numerous light-rails. Small Tokyans urged Metro to consider this new option, which would allow Expo and Blue Line trains to meet up with the Gold Line at 1st and Alameda underground. This differs from another option, which has the train emerging from the ground at the southwest corner of 1st/Alameda and crossing the street at-grade, increasing the chances for accidents and necessitating partial demolition of the Office Depot shopping center. If picked, an underground station would be built at 1st and Alameda, below the current Small Tokyo station. Metro will pick a route later this year, with groundbreaking hopes in 2014 and opening in 2018/9.
· Regional Connector Underground Alternative Approved for Further Study [Metro]
· Regional Connector: Know All the Possible Downtown Stops [Curbed LA]
In the Region | New Jersey: In New Jersey, No Consensus on Foreclosure Problem
Some see the state as relatively unscathed at this point, with the situation about to improve; others see worsening conditions that may turn downright severe.
Hollywood Development: More Images of Thom Mayne’s Emerson College Project
Some sort of courtyard craziness inside the building
The final environmental impact report for the proposed Emerson College project in Hollywood, architect Thom Mayne’s mini-campus at Sunset and Gordon, has been released. The excitement of this report is two-fold: With the days of sexy renderings long gone, the report includes two new images. Both are admittedly sort of meager-looking, but let’s take ‘em. Secondly, the report includes all the public comments to the city planners, and notably, included in the comment section is a 46-page fax from prominent land use attorney Robert Silverstein. Silverstein is representing East West Studios at 6000 Sunset Blvd, the studio that initially voiced concerns about the 10-tale building (well, “concerns” may be putting it mildly; “If it comes down to it, we’ll fight them in court,” Doug Rogers, owner of East-West Studios, said last September.) Silverstein’s letter to the city questions more questions about the project, particularly about noise and construction, among other things. Silverstein is the go-to guy for anyone looking to sue over development (and he’s been pretty active in Hollywood). Whether all the issues will be worked out or whether this will come to some legal messiness remains to be seen.
As a reminder, the project is a proposed 10 tale mixed use trade school, with 6,400 sf of ground floor retail and four levels of parking in a multi-level parking structure, including three levels of subterranean parking with some parking spaces located at grade level.
· Thom Mayne Brings the Future to Hollywood [Curbed LA]
Santa Monica: Santa Monica Forgets to Keep Tabs On Its Developer Agreements
The Santa Monica Daily Press caught the SM City Council with their pants down recently when they inquired about a city code requiring the city annually review developer agreements to make sure those developers hold up their ends of deals. The city code said the council must regularly evaluate agreements that grant developers exceptions to zoning requirements in exchange for community benefits like adding affordable housing options or paying the city fees, which are used to build parks, homeless shelters, etc. “As far as I know, there have not been annual hearings about compliance with development agreement requirements,” City Attorney Marsha Moutrie told the Daily Press this week. No one at City Hall or on the City Council, it appears, was aware of the annual review requirement. Oops. The city is trying to catch up now as they place together an extensive plotting document that will guide development for years, and is expected to be adopted this summer. They’ve already caught three developments out of compliance (five comply, while the city is studying the remaining three), including the Arboretum apartments on Colorado Avenue (pictured), which the city is suing for allegedly reneging on an affordable housing agreement.
· Council Failed to Review Development Agreements [SMDP]
Theaters: Fox Inglewood Theatre Auction Extended, City Now in the Mix
The auction for the unused, but still quite intact, Fox Inglewood Theatre was supposed to end earlier this month, but the deadline has been pushed back to March 23 by request of the city and preservationists. Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation rep Hillsman Wright tells us the city is now preparing a bid on the 1949 theater, “But, the City has made it clear that they don’t want to operate a theatre. That’s where the LAHTF and [Inglewood Fox Theatre Alliance] come in. If the City will help buy and rehab the theatre, we’re interested in operating it on a non-profit basis.” The organizations want to restore the theater into a multi-purpose event center. Wright points us to the Crest Theatre in Sacramento, which he says is one of three that are similar to the Fox Inglewood and “has been used very successfully in the way we’d like to see the Fox Inglewood develop.”
The Fox Inglewood’s current owner is former NFL player Mark Fields, who according to the South Los Angeles Report, “bought the property seven years ago with the intention of transforming it into a complex of condos anchored by a sports bar and parking garage.” A rep for the auction company told the Report that restoration will be expensive, mainly because of the asbestos in the theater.
The LAHTF and IFTA are holding a meeting on March 6 to rally the local troops in supporting the Fox Inglewood.
· Inglewood Fox Theatre Going to Auction, Preservationists Getting Nervous [Curbed LA]
· The end of an era: Historic Fox Theatre in Inglewood for sale [South Los Angeles Report]