Hollywood Ca Development And Redevelopment

All glamour fades. In Hollywood, there are few greater sins. But only those who accept the fact of decay are able to transform it. In the design for the renovation of Sid Grauman's once-fashionable Egyptian Theater, the L.A.-based architectural firm Hodgetts & Fung has avoided the false nostalgia that marks many restoration projects today. Nor did it erase the original vision by forcing the movie palace into the present.

The area flanking Mann's Chinese Theatre would give rise to entertainment and shopping complexes under plans unveiled Thursday for two ambitious redevelopment projects considered key to Hollywood's latest efforts to regain some of its long-faded luster. Toronto-based TrizecHahn Corp.

When bulldozers finished demolishing the three abandoned buildings near Yucca Street and Las Palmas Avenue in Hollywood on Monday, only a 360-by-75-foot empty lot remained. But there are big plans for that small space. Where once stood boarded-up buildings used by young transients for shelter and partying, neighborhood residents envision a community center surrounded by recreation space.

It is the fabled home of American movie making, a marquee tourist attraction that drifted over the years into an embarrassing stretch of pawn and porn. But now Hollywood, that piece of urban geography beneath the famous hillside sign, is attempting to stage its own blockbuster comeback.

The American Film Institute will hold the 10th annual AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival at Hollywood Boulevard's historic Mann's Chinese Theatre and General Cinema's Hollywood Galaxy Theaters rather than at its former Westside locations, AFI and city officials are scheduled to announce today in Hollywood. In previous years, the festival's films were screened at the Laemmle's Sunset 5 theaters and at the Laemmle's Monica Cinemas in Santa Monica.

It was only a passing reference to Hollywood, a few choice words tucked into a long speech about Los Angeles. But Mayor Richard Riordan's pledge to bring about a "Hollywood renaissance" in his State of the City address drew praise and skepticism Thursday among those who have spent years trying to breathe life into the blighted movie capital.

A preliminary investigation indicates that erosion by rainwater runoff caused the floor of a North Hollywood nightclub to collapse, not nearby subway tunneling, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said Monday. "We suspect some scouring action due to the storms that we had" may have been responsible for the damage to the El Sombrero Night Club, said John Adams, deputy MTA executive officer for construction.

A half dozen businesses along Lankershim Boulevard filed insurance claims against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority this week, charging that subway tunneling damaged their properties, officials said Friday. The claims followed the closure Monday of El Sombrero nightclub for safety reasons after the owner complained that MTA tunneling caused cracks and sunken floors on the property. The new claims, submitted to Argonaut Insurance Co.

More than 75 people rallied at Metropolitan Transit Authority headquarters Wednesday, protesting that two years of digging and dynamiting subway tunnels in the hills above Hollywood and Studio City will endanger their homes and the environment. "This project has more to do with ego trips than passenger trips," said State Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), a subway critic who organized the rally. The MTA is scheduled to fire up two boring machines in February to burrow twin 2.