Interior unit "curtain wall"
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Plans to Revive the Broadway Corridor....Again?
Downtown LA is on its way to becoming another great cultural center of LA. Live/work lofts are in construction, art galleries are moving in, bars and nightlife are emerging as a viable night-on-the-town option for those as far as Santa Monica. But what about the Broadway corridor? You may know it as the street you drive through on your way to MOCA, Chinatown, or the Walt Disney Concert Hall, dotted with swapmeets and and inexpensive shopping.
There's plans again to revitalize the area, including six projects in the works:
Million Dollar Theatre: Screenings, premieres, and theatre performances
Arcade Building: Apartments
Chapman Lofts: Condos
Pan American Lofts: Condos and Retail
Judson C. Rives Building: Apartments and Retail
Metropolitan Building: Apartments and a modernized Fallas Paredes
Currently, the Broadway overhaul has been left in the hands of property owners who have done little to nothing. In order for Broadway Street, and the greater Downtown area, to become the bustling locale for shopping and nightlife that it once was, the city may need to contribute redevelopment funds, re-landscaped streets, and loans. So far, it seems as though a Broadway revitalization is as far off as the "fabled" Metro Aqua Line.
Before the area gets a facelift, you may want to check out the quintessential diamond in the rough of Downtown, The Los Angeles Theatre. The Los Angeles theatre remains open only for parties and special events, but if you wander down there, try to take a peek in.
The theatre, built in 1931 in the French baroque style of Louis XIV, was a virtual Hollywood cathedral. Famous for its huge crystal fountain in the lobby, not an inch of the interior was left undecorated from the elegant stage curtains and ornate balcony to the intricately-carved ceiling of its lobby. When the Los Angeles Theatre was about to go under during the Depression, Charlie Chaplin paid an exorbitant amount of money to keep the posh 1,967-seat theater afloat, so that he could have the grand premiere of his masterpiece "City Lights" there. When downtown LA was abandoned for other new neighborhoods and nightlife, the Los Angeles Theatre closed and had been sitting idle, except for occasional film shoots
There's plans again to revitalize the area, including six projects in the works:
Million Dollar Theatre: Screenings, premieres, and theatre performances
Arcade Building: Apartments
Chapman Lofts: Condos
Pan American Lofts: Condos and Retail
Judson C. Rives Building: Apartments and Retail
Metropolitan Building: Apartments and a modernized Fallas Paredes
Currently, the Broadway overhaul has been left in the hands of property owners who have done little to nothing. In order for Broadway Street, and the greater Downtown area, to become the bustling locale for shopping and nightlife that it once was, the city may need to contribute redevelopment funds, re-landscaped streets, and loans. So far, it seems as though a Broadway revitalization is as far off as the "fabled" Metro Aqua Line.
Before the area gets a facelift, you may want to check out the quintessential diamond in the rough of Downtown, The Los Angeles Theatre. The Los Angeles theatre remains open only for parties and special events, but if you wander down there, try to take a peek in.
The theatre, built in 1931 in the French baroque style of Louis XIV, was a virtual Hollywood cathedral. Famous for its huge crystal fountain in the lobby, not an inch of the interior was left undecorated from the elegant stage curtains and ornate balcony to the intricately-carved ceiling of its lobby. When the Los Angeles Theatre was about to go under during the Depression, Charlie Chaplin paid an exorbitant amount of money to keep the posh 1,967-seat theater afloat, so that he could have the grand premiere of his masterpiece "City Lights" there. When downtown LA was abandoned for other new neighborhoods and nightlife, the Los Angeles Theatre closed and had been sitting idle, except for occasional film shoots
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