Details Emerge for Hollywood's Academy Square Development

Image: Kilroy Realty via Curbed LA

Over the summer, developer Kilroy Realty unveiled renderings for Academy Square, a $300 million mixed-use development on Vine Street.  Now, a set of environmental documents released by LADCP has revealed additional details about the project, which would create apartments, ground-floor retail, office space, and possibly hotel rooms on a site once intended for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

Academy Square would rise on a full city block, bounded by Vine Street, DeLongpre, Ivar and Homewood Avenues.  Plans for the 3.55-acre site call for a combination of low-rise and high-rise structures, bisected by an landscaped paseo running east-to-west across the property.

A trio of four-story buildings would flank the northern and southern perimeters of the site, containing approximately 280,000 square feet of office, retail and restaurant space.  According to a conceptual ground-floor site plan from the Shimoda Design Group, a significant portion of the proposed commercial space would be devoted to a 40,000-square-foot market at Vine Street and Homewood Avenue.

Academy Square is highlighted by a 23-story apartment building, which would stand at the northwest corner of the property.  The proposed tower would move forward under one of two development programs currently being considered by Kilroy Realty.  Under the first alternative, the building would contain as many as 250 apartments.  Under the second alternative, the project would feature 100 hotel rooms, in lieu of up to 50 fewer residential units.  Both options would include a fitness center, swimming pool and other standard amenities.

Despite its location a few blocks south of Hollywood/Vine Station, Academy Square would feature approximately 1,349 parking spaces, divided accordingly between residential, office and retail tenants.  Vehicular access to an underground garage would be provided via DeLongpre, Ivar and Homewood Avenues.

According to environmental report, construction of the potentially LEED-certified development is expected to last 27 months, starting in late 2015 and ending in early 2018.

Academy Square is the third major investment in Hollywood by Kilroy Realty, which has sought to capitalize on the neighborhood's well documented resurgence.  Most notably, the West Los Angeles-based developer is in the midst of construction on Columbia Square, a 675,000-square-foot mixed-use development on Sunset Boulevard.  The $400 million project is conceptually similar to Academy Square, featuring creative office space, high-end retail, and a luxury apartment tower.

A slew of other projects are also active nearby.  At the southeast corner of Selma Avenue and Vine Street, concrete and rebar now peek above ground for the Camden Hollywood, a 287-unit residential-retail complex.  Across the street, construction is expected to begin soon on 1601 Vine Street, an eight-story office building from the J.H. Snyder Company.

• Kilroy Unveils Deatiled Plans for Lush Urban Complex in Hollywood (Los Angeles Times)
• Initial Study - Academy Square Project (LADCP)

Excavation Underway for Hollywood's Columbia Square

When we last saw the Columbia Square project in August, I wondered if the site was being readied for construction.  We now have an answer, as excavation has started for Kilroy Realty's $300 million re-development of the former CBS Studios.  The parking lot on the northern side of the parcel is making way for two new office buildings and a 22-story residential high-rise, set to create 330,000 square feet of office space and 200 apartments.  The new buildings will sit atop a four-and-a-half level subterranean parking garage (?!).

The adaptive re-use of Columbia Square's original 1938 buildings began over the summer.  Construction crews are currently gutting the interiors of the William Lescaze designed complex to repurpose it as creative office and commercial space.  I feared that the fire which damaged the construction site in September might have delayed the project.  Sometimes it's nice to be wrong.

Viewed from the southeastern corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street

• Columbia Square Getting Ready for Construction? (Building Los Angeles)
• Columbia Square Complex in Hollywood Damaged in Fire (ABC7)

A Quick Trip Through the Sunset Boulevard Boom

This past weekend, a broken water main spilled untold gallons of precious drinking water onto the Sunset Strip, dealing yet another blow to drought-stricken California.  On the other hand, flooding of a more figurative (and less dire) sort is also occurring further east along the iconic thoroughfare.  Let's for get about LADWP's woes for a moment as we check in on the deluge of mixed-use developments adding new office space and residential units between Vine Street and the Hollywood Freeway.

As reported in mid-September, Hudson Pacific Properties has quietly broken ground on the long planned expansion of Sunset Bronson Studios (see above).  The $150 million project will ultimately create over 400,000 square feet of Class-A office space, mostly contained within a 14-story, Gensler-designed tower.  The staggered massing of the stout, 200-foot building will create a unique presence within the mid-rise Hollywood skyline.  Currently, construction crews are removing asphalt from the southeast corner of the SBS campus, clearing the way for an immense 1,600-vehicle parking garage.

Just across the street, excavation is still in progress for the Metropolitan West Apartments, a new residential development from Cornerstone Holdings, LLC.  Plans designed by Santa Monica-based VTBS Architects call for a six-story structure, containing 79 studio, one and two-bedroom apartments above a two-and-a-half level parking garage.  The project, which is considered an expansion of the adjacent Metropolitan Hollywood mixed-use complex, was initially proposed prior to the global recession.  For unknown reasons, plans indicate that the building will not include ground-level commercial space.

One block west, leasing is now underway for CIM Group's 23-story Sunset Gordon development.  The 260-foot tower, designed by Portland's GBD Architects, offers 300 luxury apartments and 40,000 square feet of creative office space above 14,000 square feet of street-level retail space.  Despite significant value engineering, the finished product has faithfully recreated the facade of the 1920s structure which previously occupied the project site.  The former one-story edifice housed a wide variety of tenants during its nine-decade lifespan, including an automobile showroom, two radio stations, and the Hollywood location of the Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant chain.

Before the series of controversial high-rise proposals near the Capitol Records Building, Sunset Gordon served as the preeminent lightning rod for anti-development sentiment in Hollywood.  Most recently, government watchdogs expressed concern when CIM Group requested $1.25 million from the city for the construction of an adjacent public park.  This request followed $3.688 million granted to to Gerdling Edlen - CIM Group's predecessor as developer - for the same purpose in 2008.  Nonetheless, the one-acre Gordon Street Park is now complete, adding some much needed green space to park-starved Hollywood. 

Continuing the westward march, construction is in full swing throughout Kilroy Realty's Columbia Square development, a sprawling project which encompasses the full city block bounded by Sunset Boulevard, Gower Street, Selma and El Centro Avenues.  The complex's handsome William Lescaze-designed buildings, built in 1938, will soon be home to a combination of creative office space, stores and restaurants.  Kilroy Realty has already snagged one major tenant for the campus, in the form of a 15-year, 93,000 square foot lease with upscale co-working space NeueHouse.

However, construction is most visible north of the historic broadcast facility, where concrete and rebar now protrudes above street level.  Kilroy Realty is adding 300,000 square feet of new office space to the site, in the form of three glassy, six-story buildings designed by Rios Clementi Hale Studios.  A 20-story, 200-unit residential tower is also underway at the corner of Selma and El Centro Avenue (foreground of the above photograph), adding a mixture of short-term and long-term rental units.  Unseen is Columbia Square's four-and-a-half level parking garage, which will sit underneath the newly constructed buildings.

Photo credit: Crescent Heights and Harley Ellis Devereaux

Other nearby properties are also expected to birth mixed-use developments in the near future.   West of Columbia Square, Miami-based Crescent Heights is planning two high-rise towers surrounding the Hollywood Palladium.  The twin 28-story buildings, designed by Natoma Architects, could feature a combination of hotel rooms and condominiums above ground-level retail and restaurant space.  Directly across the street, Palo Alto-based Essex Property Trust is scheduled to break ground next year on a seven-story apartment complex next to the Earl Carroll Theatre.

• Dissecting the Hollywood/Vine Construction Binge (Building Los Angeles)

Columbia Square Getting Ready for Construction?

Selma and El Centro

The giant parking lot at the back of the former CBS Studios complex on Sunset Blvd is starting to make way for the long awaited Columbia Square development.  Work on the adaptive re-use of the existing buildings began in Spring of 2013, and now it appears that developer Kilroy Realty is readying the site for construction of the new office and residential buildings.

Here's a look at what we have in store.

All images from Kilroy Realty

Landscaped courtyard serving the office buildings and residential tower.

A still image from Kilroy's promotional video, providing a bird's eye view from the southeast.

The building in the foreground is Studio B/C, re-envisioned as creative office space.

Overhead view of the interior courtyard.  LA is an outdoor town, and Kilroy has included a lot of outdoor amenities in their vision for Columbia Square.

View from the corner of Selma and Gower.

A bird's eye view from the southwest.  Glad to see storefronts along the Sunset Blvd side of the property.

Since Columbia Square is a large, multifaceted development, the project will open in phases.  The renovation of the historic CBS Studios and the construction of the new subterranean parking garage are both set to wrap up midway through 2014.  The new office buildings are scheduled to open late in 2015.  Completion of the 22 story residential tower is expected by early 2016.

When finished, Columbia Square will bring 200 residential units and 330,000 square feet of office space to Hollywood.  The development will activate Sunset Blvd with 33,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.  This project is one of many set to break ground in Hollywood within the next several years, including two buildings at Selma and Vine, Sunset Bronson Studios' new office tower, and the infamous Millennium Hollywood Towers.  Perhaps Crescent Heights will have shovels in the dirt for the Palladium Residences as well.

In the meantime, I highly recommend checking out the fly through video posted on the Columbia Square website.

• Columbia Square
• Selma and Vine Moving Towards Construction (Building Los Angeles)
• First Look at New Design For H'wood's Sunset Bronson Studios (Curbed LA)
• A Look at the Open Space in the Millennium Hollywood Project (Building Los Angeles)
• Here Are Your Palladium Residences (Building Los Angeles)

Columbia Square Now Going Vertical

The Hollywood skyline was starting to get a little sparse, with construction cranes having recently disappeared at both Emerson College and Blvd 6200.  Then, along came the $380 million Columbia Square development to save the day.  While little more than a giant dirt pit at this point in time, developer Kilroy Realty will eventually turn the parcel at 6121 Sunset Boulevard into over 300,000 square feet of new Class-A office space and a 20-story residential high-rise.  Dubbed "The Residences at Columbia Square," the Rios Clementi Hale-designed tower's 200 units will be divided between luxury rentals and extended stay hotel suites.  The project also entails the adaptive re-use of Columbia Square's historic William Lescaze designed structures, which shall be repurposed as creative office and retail space.

It's difficult to imagine anyone looking at Hollywood in the 1980's and seeing the potential for luxury housing and shiny new office buildings, but here we are all the same.  Kilroy Realty is confident enough in the neighborhood's future that they recently announced plans for a second project just a few blocks away.  The West LA-based developer paid over $45 million to acquire the four acre site on Vine Street where the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences once planned to build its museum.  With the proposed museum relocated south to the LACMA campus, Kilroy will instead construct a $285 million mixed-use complex containing 220 apartments, retail and office space.

Site plan for Columbia Square

• Another New Look for Columbia Square? (Building Los Angeles)
• Luxury Apartment Tower Planned at Columbia Square (Los Angeles Times)
• Columbia Square (Official Website)