LAist: Tear It Down: Hollywood/Highland Edition

Kim Cooper

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 21:54:18 -0800

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.

Haters, Chill

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 19:11:34 -0800

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?

m

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 17:28:53 -0800

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. :)

steve

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 17:15:05 -0800

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..

hollywood

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 16:20:04 -0800

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?

heartattackandvine

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 15:04:43 -0800

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

sherrie

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 14:44:53 -0800

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.

Paul Davidson

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 14:30:44 -0800

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.

Jason

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 14:27:00 -0800

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.

heartattackandvine

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 14:18:36 -0800

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.

Pete

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 13:42:46 -0800

It's served me quite well for the purpose of parking at Knitting Factory shows. $2! That's ricockulously cheap.

Japhy Grant

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 13:35:36 -0800

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.

marquischacha

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 12:44:47 -0800

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.

Kevin

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 12:22:43 -0800

Amen.