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What I don't understand is that LA has *always* had new shopping centers, malls, etc being built.
-I remember when westside pavillion was relatively new.
I remember the Westland Mall that was there before the Westside Pavilion. It was like a slightly larger version of Culver Center (both were built around the same time in the '50s) only with the May Company and a small movie theater which played foreign films. It was built on the site of the Pico Drive In, the first drive in theater in California and 2nd in the US. The owners of the Pico Drive In also owned the Olympic Drive In in Santa Monica which lasted well into the '70s.
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I use to go trick or treating there, they'd hand out candy at 3 or 4 pm. That must have added a lot of traffic to those 70's strip mall businesses around pico and westwood blvd. Pico was basically built for the 70's, and never updated. The parking behind the apple pan, and some of those businesses around there. Jewelry stores, etc.
The Apple Pan's still there ; Damiano's (same owners as the restaurant on Fairfax) is gone as is Shep's Deli. The small used and specialty bookstores on Westwood are gone. Amongst them were some foreign language bookstores: La Cite Des Livres (came in handy when I took French at Uni) and Bernard Hamel (Spanish language bookstore). Funny that there were more Spanish language bookstores in L.A. in the '80s than today.
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The mall in century city must have added traffic to that part of town.
I'm too young to remember when Century City opened (I would've been in kindergarden at the time), it was built with the assumption that it would've been next to the Beverly Hills Freeway connecting the 101 and 405. The city of Beverly Hills put pressure on the state to cancel that freeway. Coincidentally, the threat of the freeway going through made the commercial rents on Melrose Avenue - which it would have obliterated completely - low. This paved the way for the first boutiques to open there in the late '70s like Flip and its destination status in the '80s (which it has since lost to Silver Lake).
Century City would never have existed AT ALL if it hadn't been for "Cleopatra" flopping at the box office so badly that Fox was on the verge of going under. If they hadn't sold off much of their lot, they would've gone bankrupt. If you talk to Baby Boomers who grew up in WLA, Westwood, Beverly Hills, etc. they'll tell you about playing as kids on what was then empty land which was part of the lot, and males now in their mid/late 50s would tell you stories of sneaking on to the lot to try to see Batman. (I snuck onto the lot as a kid, in the '70s.)
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Remember when things like the Virgin megastore opened in hollywood?
I remember what was destroyed in order to build it! Schwab's drug store, Harry's Open Pit BBQ, Googie's, and a head shop. Alas, too young to remember Pandora's Box and the Garden of Allah.
I'm too young to remember when Century City opened (I would've been in kindergarden at the time), it was built with the assumption that it would've been next to the Beverly Hills Freeway connecting the 101 and 405. The city of Beverly Hills put pressure on the state to cancel that freeway. Coincidentally, the threat of the freeway going through made the commercial rents on Melrose Avenue - which it would have obliterated completely - low. This paved the way for the first boutiques to open there in the late '70s like Flip and its destination status in the '80s (which it has since lost to Silver Lake).
Century City would never have existed AT ALL if it hadn't been for "Cleopatra" flopping at the box office so badly that Fox was on the verge of going under. If they hadn't sold off much of their lot, they would've gone bankrupt. If you talk to Baby Boomers who grew up in WLA, Westwood, Beverly Hills, etc. they'll tell you about playing as kids on what was then empty land which was part of the lot, and malesry now in their mid/late 50s would tell you stories of sneaking on to the lot to try to see Batman. (I snuck onto the lot as a kid, in the '70s.)
Very interesting. I didn't know a lot of that stuff.
The Apple Pan's still there ; Damiano's (same owners as the restaurant on Fairfax) is gone as is Shep's Deli. The small used and specialty bookstores on Westwood are gone. Amongst them were some foreign language bookstores: La Cite Des Livres (came in handy when I took French at Uni) and Bernard Hamel (Spanish language bookstore). Funny that there were more Spanish language bookstores in L.A. in the '80s than today.
I've never been to the apple pan. But have heard about it certainly. The only restaurants I've been to in that area...Marias Italian Kitchen (across from westside pavillion). Juniors on westwood blvd. I haven't been there in probably 10 years. There was an Iranian/persian restaurant on westwood blvd, I think between pico and olympic.
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I'm too young to remember when Century City opened (I would've been in kindergarden at the time), it was built with the assumption that it would've been next to the Beverly Hills Freeway connecting the 101 and 405. The city of Beverly Hills put pressure on the state to cancel that freeway. Coincidentally, the threat of the freeway going through made the commercial rents on Melrose Avenue - which it would have obliterated completely - low. This paved the way for the first boutiques to open there in the late '70s like Flip and its destination status in the '80s (which it has since lost to Silver Lake).
Smart move by beverly hills cancelling a freeway! Would have wrecked the aesthetic appeal. Freeways can make areas look nasty. The area around the 10 freeway, in east culver city comes to mind. Sort of a no mans land.
It's too bad more places in hollywood weren't declared landmarks. Or given some sort of title, in order to save them from development. That would have been a smart move for hollywood development and tourism. Imagine having the original Schwabs or Brown Derby there?
I miss the old Century City mall with Brentano's bookstore and the old foodcourt. The new fox hills mall looks horrible.
I've never been to the apple pan. But have heard about it certainly
Best hamburgers in the world.
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There was an Iranian/persian restaurant on westwood blvd, I think between pico and olympic.
There are many in that area.
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Smart move by beverly hills cancelling a freeway! Would have wrecked the aesthetic appeal. Freeways can make areas look nasty. The area around the 10 freeway, in east culver city comes to mind. Sort of a no mans land.
And that is what Beverly Hills would have looked like if the city of Beverly Hills hadn't been able to persuade Jerry Brown to cancel the freeway.
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It's too bad more places in hollywood weren't declared landmarks. Or given some sort of title, in order to save them from development. That would have been a smart move for hollywood development and tourism. Imagine having the original Schwabs or Brown Derby there?
The idea of historic preservation came very late to L.A. and no structure still is truly safe from demolition. What one would expect from a city of the developers, by the developers, and for the developers. Even the Hollywood sign was going to be demolished in the 1970s until Hugh Hefner and Alice Cooper donated the money to fix it. In the wake of Prop 13 and L.A. putting through rent control for pre-1978 structures there was a wave of demolitions throughout then-depressed Hollywood. If the original buildings had remained and been restored to their old splendor gentrification might have happened earlier.
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I miss the old Century City mall with Brentano's bookstore and the old foodcourt. The new fox hills mall looks horrible.
Another Westfield generic mall just like every mall Frank Lowy's put up throughout the world. What Westfield's built for the 2012 Olympics in London should deter anyone from wanting the Olympics to ever return to Los Angeles from what I've read.
The idea of historic preservation came very late to L.A. and no structure still is truly safe from demolition. What one would expect from a city of the developers, by the developers, and for the developers. Even the Hollywood sign was going to be demolished in the 1970s until Hugh Hefner and Alice Cooper donated the money to fix it. In the wake of Prop 13 and L.A. putting through rent control for pre-1978 structures there was a wave of demolitions throughout then-depressed Hollywood. If the original buildings had remained and been restored to their old splendor gentrification might have happened earlier.
Of course, the "Hollywoodland" sign as it originally read was in fact a landmark created by other developers to promote new hillside homes in the new community of Hollywood.
1. Funny that there were more Spanish language bookstores in L.A. in the '80s than today.
2. Century City would never have existed AT ALL if it hadn't been for "Cleopatra" flopping at the box office so badly that Fox was on the verge of going under. If they hadn't sold off much of their lot, they would've gone bankrupt. If you talk to Baby Boomers who grew up in WLA, Westwood, Beverly Hills, etc. they'll tell you about playing as kids on what was then empty land which was part of the lot, and males now in their mid/late 50s would tell you stories of sneaking on to the lot to try to see Batman. (I snuck onto the lot as a kid, in the '70s.)
3. I remember what was destroyed in order to build it! Schwab's drug store, Harry's Open Pit BBQ, Googie's, and a head shop. Alas, too young to remember Pandora's Box and the Garden of Allah.
1. There were also a lot more Spanish language movie theatres in LA in the 1980's.....lots more. Seems like they are all gone now.
2. Century City: When location scouts for "The Conquest of the Planet of the Apes" were searching for a backdrop that epitomized the inhumanity of the modern metropolis, they chose Century City. Several shots of Century City circa 1972 can be seen in that sequel to the Planet of the Apes movie series.
3. The mixed-use development Sunset & Vine , which includes ground floor retail with apartments above, has a re-creation of the orig. Schwab's drugstore counter. Most of the Sunset & Vine complex (built in 2004) looks pretty modern....but that small piece of it has an art moderne throwback look.....to echo old Hollywood.
1. There were also a lot more Spanish language movie theatres in LA in the 1980's.....lots more. Seems like they are all gone now.
They are all gone from L.A.
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Century City: When location scouts for "The Conquest of the Planet of the Apes" were searching for a backdrop that epitomized the inhumanity of the modern metropolis, they chose Century City. Several shots of Century City circa 1972 can be seen in that sequel to the Planet of the Apes movie series.
It was right next door to Fox and only a few years before had been part of their lot.
The Fox lot was - along with the MGM lot - the most architecturally interesting of the old studios (as opposed to the other studio lots which had purely functional architecture). You could tell that those two studios back in the Golden Age of Hollywood were the wealthiest from the resources put into the buildings. Sadly, when Rupert Murdoch bought Fox, he tore down all the old buildings, but Sony has done a very good job preserving the old buildings at the MGM lot.
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The mixed-use development Sunset & Vine , which includes ground floor retail with apartments above, has a re-creation of the orig. Schwab's drugstore counter. Most of the Sunset & Vine complex (built in 2004) looks pretty modern....but that small piece of it has an art moderne throwback look.....to echo old Hollywood.
The idea of historic preservation came very late to L.A. and no structure still is truly safe from demolition. What one would expect from a city of the developers, by the developers, and for the developers. Even the Hollywood sign was going to be demolished in the 1970s until Hugh Hefner and Alice Cooper donated the money to fix it. In the wake of Prop 13 and L.A. putting through rent control for pre-1978 structures there was a wave of demolitions throughout then-depressed Hollywood. If the original buildings had remained and been restored to their old splendor gentrification might have happened earlier.
I don't quite follow the Prop 13 reference above.
Many people believe Prop 13 is responsible for stifling new construction and renovations because such activity triggers reassessment to full market value resulting in the loss of Prop 13 savings.
Are you saying Prop 13 is a catalyst spurring new construction, investment and urban renewal/gentrification?
The only people who think L.A. is a great city are the people who live here and haven't spent time in truly great cities like New York, Paris, London or Taipei.
L.A. sorely lacks two things: a first-class mass transit system, and an urban core that's safe at night and has residences, theaters, restaurants and nice retail stores. Here, the downtown is strictly business - it's deserted at night because everybody (aside from homeless people) lives in the suburbs. But the climate is great and you can live nicely here if you either live near the ocean or can afford central air conditioning and don't mind driving long distances. Like New York, L.A. has everything.
One of the great things about L.A. is its diversity. Some people complain about that, but I love it. Everybody doesn't look alike here or speak with the same accent. Compared to most places, especially the Midwest, L.A. has a rich mixture of language and ethnic groups. If that bothers you, you belong in rural Ohio or Canada or Alaska, not in a big American city.
I'm greatly saddened when I hear people complain about "the Mexicans" or "the Chinese" as though they were detrimental to the city. They are NOT. Everybody has something to contribute. That's not just a platitude; it's the truth.
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