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close up of those things. LEDs? Are these gonna look good?
http://loftla.com/loftla/Handler.ash...oID=745&Size=L more pics here: http://loftla.com/mb/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=685 |
I saw those all lit up just a few moments ago. They were bright pink, green, blue, yellow... they looked really cool.
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^ just saw that as well. i like 'em, but i wish they were bigger. the led wrap at theater entrance was on also.
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:previous: Great find, thanks.
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ARCHITECTURE REVIEW
Nokia Theatre and plaza send out mixed messages http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2007-10/33336467.jpg L.A. Live's new theater is technically strong but hides behind its facade. The plaza has the potential to connect with its downtown neighborhood. By Christopher Hawthorne, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer October 20, 2007 WHEN the much-hyped first phase of L.A. Live made its official debut Thursday night, it did so as a package deal. Opening in tandem were the Nokia Theatre, a 7,100-seat venue by the Berkeley firm ELS Architecture, and the plaza at its feet, which covers nearly an acre and was designed by L.A.'s Rios Clementi Hale Studios. It's not difficult to understand the inclination of Anschutz Entertainment Group, the Denver-based developer of the $2.5-billion L.A. Live project, to promote the plaza and the theater as a single entity -- or at least as close, chummy neighbors on a continuum that also includes Staples Center, another AEG property, across the street. As the company sees it, once you've picked up your ticket to see Björk (Dec. 12! One night only!) or the Lakers, you'll then effortlessly be able to find a table at one of the restaurants soon to spill out from the plaza's perimeter. Or, after Björk has put her Martin Margiela giraffe gown back on the green-room hanger, and Kobe has torched the Charlotte Bobcats for an inefficient 53 points in another Laker loss, you can meet a friend under one of its trees and head for a nearby drink. In that scenario, the plaza's primary role will be as a Disney-like town square for L.A. Live, the highly ambitious, publicly subsidized development that will eventually include a hotel-and-condo tower, the West Coast headquarters for ESPN, a multiplex and a bowling alley. In truth, the theater and the plaza are very different animals. It's only by considering them separately -- and trying to pick apart the knot of mixed messages that each one sends -- that we can begin to gauge L.A. Live's potential as an urban, as well as a commercial, enterprise. Although the 250,000-square-foot, $120-million theater is highly impressive technically, it's altogether compliant, even meek architecturally. Wrapped in a sleek skin of metal panels and video screens, the theater shares Staples Center's largely placeless character. It is so eager to match the arena, and to slip neatly into the master plan for L.A. Live, that as an urban object it practically fades from view. Inside, the theater is split into two distinct zones: a series of stacked lobbies, overlooking the plaza, which resemble those in unusually well-appointed movie theaters, and the auditorium, which has a 180-foot-wide stage and huge trusses spanning the ceiling, possessing the drama of scale. Although every wall facing that stage is covered in acoustical, perforated panels, nearly every other visible surface, particularly in the lobbies, has been smothered in a rich combination of carpeting and wood panels. The color scheme throughout the theater is blue and green for one reason: Blue and green are Nokia's colors. That design synergy is common for sports arenas but strikes an odd chord in a live-music venue partially underwritten by a Finnish cellphone company. Go, Nokia! ELS tends to do better with more firmly utilitarian designs, notably the 6-year-old, 600-seat Roda Theatre for Berkeley Repertory Theatre. At the Nokia, you get a sense that there is a muscular, impressively industrial-looking theater trapped inside a more conventionally handsome one and it's struggling to get out. Far more intriguing as a piece of urban design -- and as an emblem of a changing, increasingly residential downtown -- is the plaza, which does a pretty good impression of a public square though it sits almost entirely on private land. Dominated by twisting metal towers that hold sophisticated lighting and video screens -- and by rows of plane trees -- the plaza plays as many urban roles as any open space in the city. It will operate, first, as a backdrop for ESPN, which means many more people will see it each day on TV than will visit it in person. It is a commercial space second, with restaurants soon to line its edges, and an event space third, for outdoor concerts as well as corporate gatherings and awards shows. (AEG's promotional materials praise the plaza's "excellent logistics for red carpet arrivals.") Finally it is -- or has the potential to be -- a square in the old-fashioned sense, an intelligently landscaped urban amenity for nearby residents. In the last three or four years, South Park, the heart of which lies just east of L.A. Live across Figueroa Street, has emerged as one of the fastest-growing residential sections of downtown, with newly restored historic buildings nestled among new condo towers. Roughly 3,000 residential units have been built since L.A. Live was announced, with an additional 5,000 planned for completion in the next three years. Will more than a handful of South Park dwellers use the space as a neighborhood plaza -- as a spot to walk their dogs, meet a friend for coffee or hang out and read a magazine or send a text message? It's tough to say. To do that, they would have to walk from South Park toward the freeway, cross Figueroa and enter AEG Land, a place whose overriding sense of canned urbanism the new plaza only partly mitigates. This section of downtown is so short on shady, landscaped open space, though, that such trips are certainly plausible -- particularly if AEG makes good on its promises to bring in neighborhood-friendly events. A farmer's market is one possibility. Thanks in part to efforts by the city's planning department to make the plaza more welcoming to the surrounding neighborhood, its design at least nods in the direction of the civic. But the street it opens to is not Figueroa, developing quickly as a spine connecting the USC campus and Exposition Park with downtown, but rather Chick Hearn Court, which was characterized already by a faux-urban, stage-set feel. And AEG's determination to keep the plaza busy most of the time with programmed or private events casts doubt on its public potential. Indeed, what animates the plaza is the intersection -- the clash, really -- of two separate definitions of urbanism. AEG believes in "event urbanism," the idea that people come together around planned activities: celebrations, victory parades, concerts, corporate cocktail parties and the like. This is decidedly a top-down notion, a way to program and market the spaces of the city. On the less lucrative end of the spectrum lies unplanned urbanism, which can accommodate large, spontaneous gatherings -- even an angry protest -- but is more often about experiencing the city in modest ways, in small groups or alone. Unplanned urbanism is driving a few blocks to look at a new building, or wandering with a cup of coffee in hand to see a friend or buy a carton of milk. South Park is already shaping up as one of the places downtown where this kind of urbanism may take root. It has outdoor cafes, sidewalk storefronts and its own Metro rail stop. It also has some of the city's better-designed new condo towers, including a couple built by developers from Portland, Ore., where pedestrian-friendly projects are the norm. Still, we might as well be honest and clear-eyed about the way L.A. has historically been planned and therefore how its urban identity has developed and matured. In our civic landscape, the L.A. Live "event urbanism" approach is the equivalent of a native plant. It is how we have done things -- how we have organized the city -- for much of L.A.'s existence: as a collection of discrete attractions reached mostly by car. That makes South Park and other emerging pockets of pedestrian-friendly development examples of a new approach. For all the old-fashioned common sense that guides them, they represent in this city the exotic or invasive plant, brought from elsewhere and planted rather hopefully in our soil. Whether and how these two strains grow together and intertwine across Figueroa will be fascinating to watch. christopher.hawthorne@latimes.com |
I like Hawthorne's plant analogy at the end of the article. Something like LA Live isn't new in Los Angeles at all. It's another enclosed megaproject that people will drive in and then drive out without consideration for the surrounding neighborhood. But unlike other megaprojects, LA Live is existing adjacent to LA's new urbanism so it's going to be an interesting test to see how these two worlds effect each other. It's too bad both Nokia and Staples Center open out onto Chick Hearn Ct rather than Figueroa. Also the way the theater is positioned causes Nokia theater to face "sideways" along Chick Hearn Ct, leaving that big blank wall. That's too bad but there's not much in that direction anyway which dead ends with the 110. It's proximity to the 110 is a bit of a problem on a pedestrian scale, but convinient on a automobile scale. Staples was designed before a civic model was implented for downtown L.A. so that can't be helped. Just gotta make lemonade out of lemon.
By the way fridayinla has some nice pics on his flickr page of Nokia's opening night. I love the lighting. It's almost nice enough to get the bad taste in my mouth this project's left. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2056/...707e7c.jpg?v=0 http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2415/...7753ef.jpg?v=0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/fridayinla/1630507300/ |
Echo Park, FYI there is an entrance into the theater from Chick Hearn Court. The upper levels of that side of the building are covered in ads, but it's not a complete deadzone, so that's good. The real worrisome part is farther west on Chick Hearn, where there is a new, massive parking lot on the north side, and a large lot on the south side serving the Convention Center and Staples.
By the way, no one's mentioned it, but there were large crowds of people walking from 7th/Metro station to the theater on opening night. I didn't get a chance to see how many people were coming from the Pico Blue Line station but hopefully it's going to get some decent usage. If anything, it will introduce more people to the subway and light rail system, gradually. And I think we're all in agreement that AEG should definitely have pushed the rail connections more. Ugh. It's right there! All in all, it's a great project for the city and if only a portion of the theater patrons explore the larger Downtown area, that's still a great deal of business. Give it time and more people will discover the area. AEG President Tim Leiweke came up to us when we were taking photos and said "It's about time LA got something like this, isn't it?" which was cool. |
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by the way since i'm replying to you i just wanna say your blog is really good. i enjoy all the pictures, updates and eyewitness accounts of development. you and fridayinla, keep up the good work :tup: |
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Thanks for the compliment on the blog! We've been working really hard at it, so it means a lot to hear that! |
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In the Times article, Hawthorne asks if Nokia Plaza will be a place to walk their dogs. The answer is NO! I visted the plaza on Friday evening as was asked to leave because dogs are not allowed on the plaza. The security guard was very polite and my dogs are very well behaved, but they have made this a "private" plaza instead. Even Cardinal Mahoney welcomes dogs at the cathedral plaza.
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Eh, I understand that they don't want dogs in the plaza but it points to a larger issue dealing with that plaza. I'm not sure this "trickle down" urbanism will quite resonate with people as well as true urban cities like SF and NY do. Nokia Plaza is a private plaza that wants to be a public plaza, but with such a manufactured angle to it I can't see its purpose serving too well. Build a plaza, have award shows and concerts and hope people show up as opposed to looking for a place where people congregate and advertise there. Granted such places don't really exist in L.A. so we might not have a choice. It just makes the rehabilition of something like Pershing Square much more needed.
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Nokia Theatre . . . Revolutionary Progress?
Can somebody tell me why The L.A. Times can't stand evolutionary (or revolutionary) progress in their own back yard? I guess the Times' left-leaning ideologies are sooo west-side centric that anywhere else must suck. it seems that in the eyes of the Times, if Hillary Clinton or Barbara Streisand aren't involved, then the project just has to be a total failure.
Oh yeah . . . who the hell is Joel Kotkin anyway? Some self-appointed architectural critic and local gas bag that wants all of L.A. to be like his quiet and peaceful little west-valley neighborhood. God forbid we should embark on a densification program and become more urbanized . . . in Mr. Kotkin's eyes we'll just become another Manhattan or Downtown Chicago. What a dork!! :koko: I wish the L.A. Times would stop killing whole forests just to print their west-side liberal bull***t! :hell: The article below appeared in the October 19th Edition of The L.A. Times. Officials hope Nokia helps spur more growth and leisure activity downtown. But some experts have doubts.[/color] By Sharon Bernstein and Geoff Boucher, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers October 19, 2007 With tickets sold out and limousines at the ready, the Nokia Theatre threw open its doors Thursday night with performances by the Eagles and the Dixie Chicks. But it's the performance of the theater itself that has planners and city leaders holding their breath. The 7,100 seat venue -- combined with Staples Center and the Music Center complex -- positions downtown Los Angeles to be the region's leader in big-ticket live entertainment. Planners and developers have bet some of downtown's future growth on high-rise towers built around these two entertainment hubs. Amid the gala opening, however, there remains significant doubt among some urban planners over whether huge venues can actually help the surrounding sections of downtown grow and thrive. The Nokia Theatre is the centerpiece of L.A. Live, a sprawling $1.7-billion development that will include nightclubs, restaurants, an ESPN broadcast center and a Ritz-Carlton hotel. Downtown boosters are counting on the complex to help draw new residents and visitors to the growing community of lofts and condos rising to the north and east. In the same way, they are banking on the lure of the Music Center and Museum of Contemporary Art to generate interest in the $2-billion, Frank Gehry-designed shopping, office and high-rise condo complex set to be built on the north side of downtown. "Downtown Los Angeles used to be a place you pointed to when you were in the hills: 'There it is, those big buildings. No reason to go down there,' " said Don Henley, the drummer who shares lead singing duties in the Eagles, as he prepared backstage for Thursday's performance. "What's going on now, here, is very interesting. You're seeing downtown matter in new ways." Fans may drive downtown for the Eagles, Kobe Bryant and shows like "Avenue Q" -- but will they want to live near these large venues or even stay and walk around to experience other parts of downtown? "If you put the Eagles in my backyard, people would come," said a skeptical Joel Kotkin, a presidential fellow at Chapman University who has written extensively about Los Angeles' urban life. "The Forum was in Inglewood. Did that make Inglewood the center of the music scene?" Until now, much of the revitalization of downtown L.A. has occurred organically -- with the conversion of historic buildings, old warehouses and postwar office towers into high-end condos and lofts. But downtown is seeing a boom in new residential construction, fueled by development in and around the city center's two entertainment hubs. Stan Ross, chairman of the board of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, said a lot is riding on whether the Nokia Theatre can draw people downtown to see concerts, dine out and perhaps even to live. "It's a validation and a confirmation -- but it's a beginning and not the end," Ross said of the theater's opening. "It has to be an acceptable destination. . . . I don't think people make dramatic shifts until they feel comfortable." There was a sort of symmetry to the Eagles' opening the Nokia. In the 1970s, the band was at the forefront of the "Southern California sound" that began in scruffy clubs such as the Troubadour in West Hollywood but eventually echoed worldwide. Henley sees the opening as the latest sign of a geographic shift east in the L.A. live-music scene. "For us, our history began at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium and, even before that, our first show in public was at the Westlake School for Girls" in Bel-Air. "There was the Troubadour, of course," he said. "Los Angeles is always changing." For AEG Live, which owns both Staples and Nokia, as well as theaters near Dallas and in New York and a complex in London, the new facility is part of a push to create major venues with top-notch trappings for baby boomers who don't want to sit out in the cold in stadium seats anymore -- and who have the money to pay for high-end digs (tickets for the Eagles went for as much as $265). "They want smaller and nicer, and they will pay for it," said Gary Smith, chief operating officer of Pollstar, the leading concert industry trade publication. Already, he said, the theater has Neil Young, John Fogerty and Aretha Franklin booked for its first season, and Smith's company is moving its annual awards show there. The theater's outer shell echoes the metallic swoops of its larger sibling, Staples Center, and inside is built with attention to acoustic detail that promoters say will make it a prime place to hear music. Ready to serve as a key venue for awards shows, the theater has 5,000 square feet of LED screens inside and out, and the stage is 180 feet wide by 80 feet deep. (The Nokia will host the American Music Awards in November, and there has been talk of the Emmys and Golden Globes considering the site as well). Out front is a 40,000-square-foot plaza that developers hope will become "Times Square West" on New Year's Eve. On Thursday evening, concertgoers checked out the new attraction and marveled at the construction all around. Richard Irvine, 20, and his girlfriend, Jackie Martinez, 21, both from Rancho Cucamonga, were wearing Eagles T-shirts as they walked around. The couple said they sometimes grab a bite or a drink after a show downtown -- but they would not think of moving there. "It's too busy," he said. "It's too fast a pace of life." Ron Rhodes, 60, and his wife, Terry, 44, said they come from Riverside to Staples Center for events five or six times a year. But they doubt the Nokia will prompt them to explore downtown more. "We never venture out," Terry Rhodes said. "It's just not our lifestyle," Ron Rhodes said. One of the biggest challenges for planners is incorporating a huge new project like L.A. Live into the rest of downtown -- and making it inviting to pedestrians roaming around the city center as well as motorists driving in. Part of the problem is that developers tend to build projects so they are somewhat cloistered from the surrounding city, said Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, chairwoman of the planning department at UCLA. As a result, she said, patrons simply drive in to see a concert and then drive out again, not stopping to participate in the night life of downtown. "It's still not well proven that these projects do much to rejuvenate downtowns, other than to bring some tax money to the city coffers," said Loukaitou-Sideris, who recently completed a survey of cities that have built large projects in their downtowns, to see if they really help to revitalize the areas. Like L.A., most cities require that these projects be open to a public street and have pedestrian access, but developers tend to shy away from too much openness, worried that suburban patrons will be uncomfortable in a grittier environment. In developing its master plan for the neighborhood encompassed by L.A. Live, city planners sought to avoid that situation by requiring that all businesses face public streets, and that all restaurants offer sidewalk dining, said Kevin Keller, the planner who oversees the development in that part of downtown as well as in Hollywood. Planners were well aware that most patrons would come from other parts of town to see shows at Staples, the Nokia and other theaters planned for L.A. Live, Keller said. But they expect people to park once they arrive and walk around from there. The scene Thursday was definitely bustling, with police directing traffic, and concertgoers -- including a scattering of big names, including actor James Woods and singer Kenny Chesney -- learning the ropes of the new center. "You're always a bit apprehensive opening a new place. . . . We're a little concerned about people getting [into the] building since everything is new, and also both the Eagles and Chicks will be full sets," said Irving Azoff, the Eagles' longtime manager, while sitting in the still-empty venue before the show. "We hope it doesn't get too far behind schedule." sharon.bernstein@latimes.com geoff.boucher@latimes.com Times staff writer Jason Song contributed to this report. |
I agree that it's junk, but the LA Times piece isn't "liberal crap." That they keep referencing and quoting Joel Kotkin is actually a bit of a conservative bent. But that's neither here nor there...
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LA is still like a midwestern small town trying to make a name for itself against the established ones. it will always be comparing itself to the real thing. but it will never be forging something real for itself as long as this is true.
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^ Yeah, LA needs to just shut up and be LA. Other cities are constantly trying to copy LA they just don't let it be known. All eyes are on LA and what goes on here. I almost puked when they kept referring to LA live as Time Square West when Nokia opened.
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I know i'm technically bumping this thread, but I just HAD to answer this:
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Behind the Music
A Sneak Peek Inside L.A. Live's $30 Million Grammy Museum By Kathryn Maese The next phase of the $2.5 billion L.A. Live sports and entertainment district is set to debut in October, but one key component of the development is already hitting a high note. Though its four-story shell is still under construction, plans are beginning to emerge about the $30 million Grammy Museum slated for the southwest corner of Figueroa Street and Olympic Boulevard. Museum officials last week revealed some of the operational and exhibit details to Los Angeles Downtown News. Organizers estimate the facility will draw 300,000 people in its first year. They will visit the interactive exhibits, take music classes, screen films and attend live performances. The museum will focus on the process of making music, the technology involved and the history of the Grammys. "There's going to be more music down there per square foot than anywhere else in America," said Grammy Museum Executive Director Bob Santelli, who also helped create the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. The museum is tied in with the Grammy Awards, which have taken place at the Staples Center next door since 2000. L.A. Live developer Anschutz Entertainment Group is funding the project and has pledged to support the venue for a decade. The Recording Academy, which runs the Grammys, had tried to get a museum off the ground for years, but efforts were halted by difficulties in raising funds or finding a site. The AEG partnership provided solutions to both problems. Santelli said the museum will start installing exhibits this August when exterior construction is completed. Located on L.A. Live's most prominent corner, the facility abuts the site of the 2,300-seat Club Nokia (to open this fall) and a string of about two dozen planned restaurants. A video screen wrapping around the building's façade will project music-related images. Though smaller in scale than many of its music-touting contemporaries, the 30,000-square-foot Grammy Museum will attempt to join the ranks of the so-called Big Three - the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, the Experience Music Project in Seattle and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "This is a museum about artistic excellence and the creative process behind making music," Santelli said. Technology and Fashion Museum brass estimate it will take visitors about two hours to experience the museum; guests will enter on the fourth floor and walk through a tunnel plastered with life-sized figures ranging from Usher to Faith Hill to Frank Sinatra. The sound-sensory experience leads to an 18-foot table where visitors can explore 130 forms of music and how their histories connect. The third floor is a behind-the-scenes look at the art and technology of the recording process as well as the Grammy legacy. Visitors will follow the evolution of music history from the wax cylinder to surround sound, and from the record to the iPod. Iconic record men of the past and present, including Clive Davis and Barry Gordy, will be featured, along with a peek into the production process - the 12-minute Produce a Record Experience allows participants to enter a sound booth and cut a record - with advice from producers such as Sir George Martin, who produced almost all of the Beatles' albums. Also on display will be a red carpet exhibit of some of the fashions that have marked the Grammy Awards, including the infamous low-cut green Jennifer Lopez dress from the 2002 show. Santelli said his staff has been collecting artifacts from artists, management and record companies, existing museums and private collectors to put on display. During Grammy week earlier this month, he sent out curators with cameras to record every event and scout for potential artifacts to tell the story of the year's music - he said he hopes to acquire an umbrella from artist Rihanna, whose single "Umbrella" topped the charts in 2007. The museum's second level will house the Grammy Sound Stage, an intimate 200-seat theater that will screen films, host lectures and present live performances and interviews, some of which will be recorded. Santelli said he is also putting together an exhibit titled "Songs of Conscience, Sounds of Freedom," aimed at educating students about music's contribution to history and politics. A new exhibit will be launched once a year. As part of the museum's outreach, Santelli said he plans to program Saturday morning music lessons for kids, with some instruments donated by Fender. He has also established links with Downtown's Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, USC and Occidental College in Eagle Rock, as well as high schools in the area. "We will be collaborating very closely with L.A. to bring a number of educational programs to the L.A. Live campus," said Santelli, a former professor at Rutgers University. "They will be state-of-the-art, unlike any other music museum has had the capacity to do. L.A. Live is at a great cross-section of venues, and on top of that we have this great plaza, concerts and programs." The museum will include a lobby gift store and a 500-person terrace that will cater to industry parties and private events. Santelli said admission will be $12.95. The Downtown Los Angeles museum comes at a time when the music industry faces a wealth of challenges, from decreasing sales tied to Internet file sharing and pirated CDs, to declining attendance at music museums across the country. The Recording Academy has not been exempt: The Feb. 10 Grammy Awards broadcast received the second lowest television rating in show history, and critics have pegged the 50-year-old awards as being out of touch with the times, especially criticizing the award to Herbie Hancock for Album of the Year. But Santelli is bullish on the museum and its importance to music history and the city. The former music journalist for Rolling Stone and author of several books said there is a story to tell at this museum. "When people come to the museum, they should expect to be there for a while," he said. "It's chock full of content. Really we're trying to get people to think critically about music, both young kids as well as Baby Boomers. Music is such an important part of our culture. We want to create sophisticated listeners." More details about the museum are expected to be released in April. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Los Angeles Downtown News |
^So in addition to a museum it's going to be a music institution too? That makes sense actually. A recording academy like the Grammys that specializes in rewarding the most unimaginative of musicians, producers and huge corporate record labels with an increasingly irrelevant award show will be a perfect fit in a likewise vain and manufactured entertainment center like LA Live.
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