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The Oscars Museum Finally Gets The Green Light For Construction
Movie lovers will finally get their own museum in the Miracle Mile now that a deal has been reached clearing the way for construction this fall.
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will be built at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, now that the threat of a lawsuit over traffic, parking and intrusive signage has been dropped, reports the L.A. Times. To avoid the lawsuit, a deal was reached between the Academy and Fix the City—a nonprofit group that opposes development it considers damaging to neighborhoods—giving the green light to the $300 million movie museum. Fix the City President Mike Eveloff announced last night that the two parties had reached a "settlement agreement." According to Museum spokesman Morgan Kroll, the Academy "received a demolition/alteration permit from the city this week, and demolition—the first stage of construction—begins this fall."
City approval for construction had originally been given in June to the museum's parent organization, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. But plans for a summer start date were delayed due to talks with Fix the City. The group is apparently now satisfied with the Academy's "innovative" systems that will monitor and address traffic flow and increased parking needs for the museum, which Fix the City was initially worried about. The museum is expected to receive as many as 2,000 visitors a day and possibly 5,000 on busy days. They will be sharing a parking structure and surface lot with neighboring LACMA.
Fix the City was concerned about spikes in attendance, particularly for special events and screenings at the cool 1,000-seat spherical cinema planned for the museum. The Academy agreed to lease 800 additional parking spaces from neighboring lots and the Petersen Auto Museum across the street.
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The Academy has also agreed to not put advertising banners along the Fairfax side of the museum—a feature that Fix the City opposed—as they initially planned. They will also make sure that a "large digital sign" does not distract drivers along Wilshire. The Academy did get the go-ahead for digital signs along Wilshire in what was once the display windows of the 1939-built May Co. department store. They'll also be able to add a giant Oscar statuette to the building's tall, gold-and-black art deco column, reports the Times.
The Academy is hoping to open the museum sometime in late 2017.
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