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Sometimes you can't keep a good "let's tear down this god forsaken local monolith" LAist post down -- as is evidenced by today's resurgence of Tear It Down: Hollywood/Highland Edition.
Previously, LAist suggested we tear down the gaudy 8500 Melrose Avenue building and the Hollywood sign to no avail. Apparently, city council members and local demolition experts didn't hear our cries of dissent and, well, didn't really care.
But we digress, moving on to a monstrosity that the Romans might have built in ancient Greece had they been known for a love of crappy bowling alleys, labryinth-esque corridors and camera-wielding foreigners from other parts of Europe. Alas, no matter what the city of Hollywood thought they were doing to reinvigorate downtown Hollywood -- all they did was ruin their chances of getting local Angelenos excited at all by building a flashy nightmare draped in drag.
Unfortunately, Hollywood boulevard has always been known for a variety of things that do not appeal to locals. There's getting twelve t-shirts for twelve bucks, standing and looking down at the Walk of Fame in awe (only 14% of locals do this, FYI) and buying churros for a dollar. Why local t-shirt magnates haven't created the "buy a churro and twelve shirts while looking at the Walk of Fame for $20 bucks tour" is anyone's guess. Even Mann's Chinese theater -- which, for most people, had been the only reason to visit that part of town, has seemingly become less and less desireable with the creation of The Arclight and other mega-cinema houses.
So, then if no one cared about Hollywood Boulevard anymore, what did the developers of Hollywood/Highland think would happen when they built one huge mirage in the middle of skid row?
The goal, we think -- was to try and bring Angelenos back to the boulevard by giving them what they were looking for. High end shops, food and drink, entertainment and the largest underground parking garage ever known to man. But let's be honest, putting a diamond in a big scoop of poo isn't going to suddenly convince people to pick up said scoop of poo. And further, by pissing off local businesses (now closing because they couldn't afford the rent INSIDE the center and now had zero foot traffic because of the Walmart of entertainment complexes had given them the big slam down) -- developers were definitely not gaining the loyalty of local business owners who made that street what it was in the first place.
But all business/rent/flashy issues aside -- the Hollywood/Highland complex feels more like eating a piece of sponge cake. Sure, the taste at first is great -- but for the rest of the day you've got the worst taste in your mouth and there's nothing you can do to get rid of it. It's poorly planned, poorly laid out and the largest maze next to that one in The Shining (yes, they've just announced brand-new directional signs to help the lost children). It takes the dizzying feeling a normal mall like The Beverly Center or the Century City Shopping Center (we still refuse to call it Shoppingtown) and ramps it up to an all new level of nausea and disgust.
Some of you may like it, fine. Some of you may enjoy drinking your body weight in booze and hitting up Lucky Strike. Others may enjoy the dozens of clothing stores at your fingertips. But here at LAist, the site of the Hollywood/Highland monolith just makes us want to tear it down.
Will it happen? Probably not. Should it happen? Probably. Do you care?
You should.
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Amen.
I still don't know how to get to the parking garage from the main area. I always go around on the side street and walk down the vehicle entrance. I swear! Place is a nightmare I tell ya.
See, I disagree. Hollywood and Highland isn't for Angelinos at all. It's for tourists. New Yorkers don't go to Times Square, Angelinos only go to HH for the occasional movie. I'm grateful for the monstrosity: think of all the wandering tourists that would fill our fair streets if they weren't safely coralled and entertained by the likes of shoddily dressed Supermen and kept docile with regular infusions of Cold Stone Creamery.
As for HH being campy- it's no like Hollywood Boulevard has ever been anything but.
It's served me quite well for the purpose of parking at Knitting Factory shows. $2! That's ricockulously cheap.
OK, grumpistiltskins, hold on there. Is HoHi a glitzy, confusing tourist trap monstrosity? Why yes, yes it is. But it also transformed Hollywood in the same way that Horton Plaza did with the Gaslamp District in San Diego. Without this real estate development, none of the other improvements in the neighborhood would have taken the risk. No Amoeba Records. No Archlight. No Cahuenga Bar scene outside of the Room & the Burgundy Room. No new influx of apartment and condo construction. The area is quickly changing, and it's also pushing out those tacky little t-shirt shops too.
Remember what that stretch of Hollywood used to look like? Just go to the Vermont/Sunset branch of Bank of America, there's a mural on the wall circa 1984 depicting that area.
The cheap parking is definitely a bonus.
I don't hate H&H. I don't quite get the way it is constructed nor do I understand the elephants or this desire to turn open air malls into wind tunnels (I was just there this past Sunday. Oy. I nearly flew away) but it could be lots worse.
Besides that, it keeps all the tourists away from the good stuff in H'wood.
Here's a solution for everyone who wants to keep the tourists away from the good parts of H'Wood. The minute tourists come into town we bus them to a holding pen and we keep them there the whole time they're in LA. That way we can tear down H/H and put something there that Angelenos actually DO want to visit.
Just an idea. Trying to offer up potential solutions, is all.
Oh man, I'm so glad you brought up the 'crappy bowling alley'. There was nothing more disgraceful than the fall of the Hollywood Star Lanes...and then all its beautiful insides (the neon stars, actual wood from the lanes) ended up in that Hollywood Whore Monger Lucky Strikes place. For that alone I will never forgive anyone even remotely involved in the building of that DeMille-ian monstrosity. Also, seriously, I miss the times when Hollywood and Highland was just a giant pit. WAY less tourists.
The Babylonian arch and elephant details were to pay tribute to the granduer of D.W. Griffith's "Intolerance" movie set. Yeah. The same guy who brought us "Birth of a Nation" with the KKK potrayed as the protagonists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Griffith-intolerance.jpg
Griffith's Babylonian set with elephants, etc., formerly stood for many years at the intersection of Hollywood and Sunset Blvds. Perhaps HoHi should be teleported there?
it's not like they decided to build an odd-shaped vertical mall for no reason. if you don't remember, what it replaced was a dull, vertical office building -- not too easy to redevelop (this is pre turn-everything-into-lofts days).
the bowling alley materials from Hollywood Star Lanes were *salvaged* from being lost forever by Lucky Strike. the land-owner of the alley was selling and was tearing down the original.
the high-end stores were never really for locals -- they were designed for big-spending foreign tourists (who disappeared for a while after 9-11). ever been to waikiki?
and despite the odd "problems" some people claim to have navigating it, I have seen many people, visitors and locals alike, enjoying a decent, clean place to rest on a trip to hollywood boulevard. I know it's cool to say you hate H+H, people do come to see the handprints, the walk of fame, the chinese theater. and before, there was nowhere besides seedy giant-slice pizza shops to sit down. H+H has decent restaurants in a variety of prices and the only "public" areas on the blvd to rest -- you're not required to even buy anything to sit at the mosaic tables in the courtyard. and I'm not even sure what issue someone could have that there's so much parking..? what's really sad is demolition of the grand hotel that used to be in that spot before the 1960's high rise that H+H replaced. this redevelopment seems pretty successful to me. and there's no law that you have to love every building in the city. lighten up - go to the grove.. it's pretty and it's more horizontal. sorry. that's my 3 cents..
i agree with steve; i don't see what the problem with the H&H is. (i even work down the street so i actually have to look at it every day).
plus the layout (though really confusing) actually increases the foot traffic. ever tried to walk down hollywood blvd nearby around on a sunny afternoon? it's almost impossible. the tourists spill out of H&H and venture up and down the block. and the nightlife is fun (if not a bit trashy).
so i think the whole neighborhood is looking pretty good. :)
Listen haters, lucky strike, while mildly tacky and too loud is still a kick ass bowling alley that knows how to make bowling and drinking fun. What's the problem with that? Where else can you see hot chicks snakedance while you try to break 100?
The owners of Hollywood Star Lanes weren't wilfully SELLING everything off, they were forced to close when the LAUSD claimed eminent domain, the same scenario that's robbed us of the beauteous Ambassador. I wish they'd build a school on top of Mollywood, the worst aspect of which is that absurd footsteps of achievement installation with lines like "When I got to L.A. it looked like the end of all creation with a pixie stick up it's ass." --Cowboy Movie Star.