Westwood, CA

The area of Hollywood east of 101  freeway has always played second class to “Real Hollywood” to the west.  Recent redevelopment efforts have had a big effect in revitalizing the area especially between the Hollywood Freeway and Vermont and several mixed use projects have either been built, are under construction or entitled and ready to go.  atelier V : architecture (www.atelierv.com) has been engaged to design an 80-room boutique hotel in the area contributing to further revitalization of the Hollywood Blvd. corridor east of the freeway.  ”The area is zoned R-5 restricting all hotel development to lower densities per the Vermont/Western Specific Plan, while the proximity to the Metro and the dense urban fabric calls for higher density development, this is an issue that we will be struggling with the Planning department on”  Says Mark Vaghei, AIA, atelier V’s Principal in Charge.

The site is a small postage stamp corner site of only 9,500 SF. “Our Strategy from the very beginning was to densify the site to the maximum allowable FAR under High Density Residential zoning per the specific plan, this naturally led to a 5 story building with 16 rooms per floor and one level of subterranean garage”  Says Mark Vaghei, AIA.  Achieving a higher density and a minimum of 80 rooms was considered essential as far as the client was concerned.  Anything less than the ideal room count, would not have made financial sense for the client.  Parking reduction of 15% was allowed due to the availability of Public Transport nearby and further parking reduction strategies were used by employing the newly adopted Bicycle Ordinance.

The project will be a typical podium construction with Ground level dedicated mainly to parking use with a restaurant component as well as a lobby for the hotel.  There will be 5-levels of type III wood construction above the concrete Type I podium level.  The building typology is an inverted “C” bookend with an interior courtyard at the podium level which will house the hotel amenities such as the lap pool, cabanas, etc.  All the back of the house areas including on site Laundry facility etc. will be in the basement floor.  Two elevators are provided with one acting also as a service elevator for house cleaning.  Additionally, there will be a roof deck with planters and a bar for guests to enjoy with views of the city.

“We are in the process of working with the planning department for securing of the entitlements, this will be a long drawn out process and we don’t anticipate construction anytime sooner than early to mid 2016 or so”  says Mark Vaghei, AIA.

Please look for further news on the development of the “80 Cool Rooms” boutique hotel in future VEWS articles.  

Please go to www.atelierv.com  / projects/commercial/Hollywood Hotel for all the photographs of “80 Cool Rooms”

 

Credits:

Leonardo Rodriguez, Junior Designer/3D Artist.