Hollywood
Boulevard is one of the most famous streets
in the world and is architecturally diverse. It is a linear public space used by the greatest number of tourists in the
city. Rather than just create a generic, box-like building, we felt we had an
opportunity to create something unique, iconic, and architecturally significant
that would fit contextually, and would provide Hollywood with a new landmark,
giving visitors an exciting new destination to visit.Our project adjoins, the Iconic Chinese Theater, which
attracts 5 million tourists each year. Our two primary objectives were to
create additional public space and to complement the historical Theater with a
contemporary aesthetic and an inviting building. As is the case in all large
American cities, the approval process is ‘democratic’ and fluid. We had to
negotiate with multiple citizens groups, client, tenants, elected officials,
and contractors to achieve this. In our youth we believed this was a waste of
time although necessary. Now we believe it is an efficient and subtle way to
teach citizens about the histories, theories and politics of urbanism and
architecture.
With a $55 million total construction cost exterior and
interior/exhibits, the architects were able to create a building that optimized
everyone’s interests and met all of the parameters for developing this site,
which included height restrictions, architecture, and politics. The common
ground between the Architects and all of the groups vested in this project was
that our opportunity was to make a building that could produce an public urban
space that increased the ‘dwell time’ of the one million visitors to this place
each year.
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