Chutney Bay's video: Hollywood Highland Mall to Become Hollywood Ovation

Hollywood/Highland Mall to Become Hollywood Ovation This video is an excerpt from an LA Times article about the $100 million dollar renovation of the Hollywood Mall. Hollywood & Highland, the splashy shopping center around the theater where the Academy Awards are held, will get a $100-million makeover intended to transform the well-known Hollywood Boulevard tourist attraction into a place locals want to visit too. Key to the center’s renovation will be turning as much as half of its space into offices for rent, a reflection of the challenging climate for retail stores and the emergence of Hollywood as one of the city’s top office markets, where media giants have expanded in recent years. Completed in 2001, Hollywood & Highland has provided the neighborhood with a stalwart anchor, a place meant to give newcomers a sense they have arrived in the off-screen Hollywood of their imaginations. Even though it has already had one makeover, the center is dated and still saddled with fundamental problems in its design that need to be fixed. One of the center’s challenges is its five-story height. Underutilized retail and event space on the top two floors will be converted to offices. Changes to the center will be both structural and cosmetic. The plan calls for a simplified facade and color scheme, more navigable layout, lush landscaping, new art pieces and expanded outdoor space to provide more opportunities to dine and linger. The giant white elephants referencing the Babylon set of D.W. Griffith’s 1916 movie “Intolerance” and other thematic elements will be removed to simplify the design and give the center a sense of “timeless” 21st century modernism. The prominent arch with Babylonian images will be converted to a modern take on Art Deco style inspired by the upward beams of klieg lights once common at Hollywood movie premieres. Signs of different sizes that tend to compete with one another for attention on the boulevard will be consolidated in larger billboards in the hope of reducing clutter and presenting a more cohesive image for the property. The complex will be renamed Ovation Hollywood, meant to signal that it is a place to find entertainment and culture. About a third of the center will be dedicated to food and drink, enticing people who live in the area or who might view Hollywood as a central meeting point when friends gather from other parts of town. The offices would also naturally bring in locals, and the owner expects tenants will be in such creative fields as media, technology and advertising along with Hollywood mainstay entertainment.