L.A. Council approves controversial signs for convention center
The deal with AEG will bring in $2 million a year. Separate hearings will be held on the firm's request for 50,000 square feet of billboards and electronic displays.
The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to sell signage rights for the L.A. Convention Center to the owner of Staples Center, a move that will allow dozens of billboards and video displays to sprout on a public facility along one of the city's busiest freeway interchanges.
The agreement grants the exclusive signage rights to Anschutz Entertainment Group, known as AEG, the company that is overseeing the adjacent $2.5-billion LA Live development. In exchange, AEG will pay the city at least $2 million a year over the next decade and also share a portion of the net advertising profits from the signs.
Council members said they were largely swayed by the stream of cash that the deal will deliver to the city at a time when the economic downturn has forced budget cuts and fee increases.
Convention center signs: An article in Thursday's California section about a proposal by developer AEG to put billboards and electronic signs on the convention center in downtown Los Angeles said the company had already received $27 million in tax breaks to build the LA Live sports and entertainment center. AEG has received $270 million in tax breaks.
Critics, however, argued that the additional signs would create a visual blight on the downtown skyline and add to the proliferation of billboards in the city, and also questioned whether the city could have struck a more lucrative financial deal.
With the signage rights granted, the city will now hold separate hearings on AEG's detailed plans to adorn the convention center with more than 50,000 square feet of billboards and flashing electronic signs. The most visible would be two massive signs that would cover portions of the center's landmark glass towers, and four digital billboards would blink out to drivers chugging through the 10 Freeway and 110 Freeway interchange.
Caltrans also must review the plan to ensure that freeway drivers will not be distracted by the signs.
One of the lead architects involved in the convention center's 1993 expansion and redesign said he was "appalled" by aspects of AEG's proposal. AEG wants to hang a 75-by-66-foot sign and a 56-by-50-foot sign on the center's signature features -- the two soaring towers of glass panels and white metal tubing that face South Figueroa Street.
"The glass pavilion is designed for transparency . . . It's a landmark, and when you add a solid panel of that magnitude and size," it destroys that view, Ki Suh Park, managing partner of the Los Angeles-based architectural firm Gruen Associates, told The Times in a telephone interview Wednesday.
Park said he is not opposed to allowing signs but to have such as massive amount would damage the integrity of the design: "Signs should complement rather than overwhelm the building. The scale is a concern."
