Crossroads of the World
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Crossroads of the World | |
 Crossroads of the World | |
| Location | 6671 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, California |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 34°5′53.48″N 118°20′8.27″W / 34.0981889°N 118.3356306°W |
| Built | 1936 |
| Architect | Robert V. Derrah |
| NRHP reference No. | 80000805 |
| LAHCM No. | 134 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | September 8, 1980 |
| Designated LAHCM | December 4, 1974 |
Crossroads of the World has been called America's first outdoor shopping mall. Located on Sunset Boulevard and Las Palmas in Los Angeles, the mall features a central building designed to resemble an ocean liner surrounded by a small village of cottage-style bungalows. It was designed by Robert V. Derrah and built in 1936.
Once a busy shopping center, the Crossroads later became private offices, primarily for the entertainment industry with a variety of music publishers and producers, television and film script writers, film and recording companies, novelists, costume designers, publicists, and casting agencies. The owner is planning on redeveloping the site.
History
In 1931, after Charles H. Crawford's death, his wife Ella decided to build a multi-national outdoor market - that would feel like «a permanent world's fair with a cosmopolitan atmosphere» - on the land where her husband was shot. She hired the Streamline Moderne architect Robert V. Derrah (who was finishing his work on the Coca-Cola Building) to design the complex.[1]
Derrah designed a ship-shaped structure in the center of the complex. The surrounding buildings represented different countries of the world. The complex originally held 57 shops and cafes, and 36 offices on the upper floors. The Crossroads of the World was inaugurated on 29 October 1936. The new shopping center was not a full-blown success, but it became an excellent model for outdoors malls across the world.[1]
In the 1950s, the Crossroads of the World was converted into an office complex. The Screen Actors Guild, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Jackson Browne and Alfred Hitchcock used to rent offices there. The property was purchased in 1977 by the real estate investor Mort La Kretz and restored.[1]
In January 2019, the Los Angeles City Council approved the project to revamp the Crossroads of the World in a move to revitalize the district.[2] New buildings are planned to bring 950 apartments and condos, a 308-room hotel, and 190,000 square feet (18,000 m2) of commercial space. 82 Hollywood Regency garden apartments are to be demolished in the project.[3][4] The preservationists called the redevelopment project a "Manhattanization of Hollywood".[5]
In popular culture
Films:
TV shows
Commercials:
Reproductions
A reproduction of Crossroads' iconic tower and spinning globe can be seen just inside the entrance to Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Florida.
See also
- Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in Hollywood
- List of Registered Historic Places in Los Angeles
References
- ^ a b c d e Kim Sudhalter, Have you ever wondered... What the Crossroads of the World is all about?, Onlyinhollywood.com, 1 December 2014
- ^ ZAHNISER, DAVID (2019-11-29). "AIDS group faces third defeat in six months, with judge tossing Hollywood high-rise lawsuit". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2019-11-30.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Bianca Barragan, Hollywood’s Crossroads of the World project approved by City Council, La.curbed.com, 22 January 2019
- ^ Jenna Chandler, The apartments are slated to be torn down to make way for a new hotel and hundreds of new apartments and condos, La.curbed.com, 22 August 2018
- ^ Elijah Chiland, Preservationists raise concerns about Crossroads of the World redevelopment: ‘We’re headed to Manhattanization of Hollywood’, La.curbed.com, 7 September 2017
External links
| Topics | |
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| Lists by state |
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| Lists by insular areas | |
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| Other areas | |
| Related | |
- Buildings and structures in Hollywood
- Commercial buildings in Los Angeles
- Shopping malls in Central Los Angeles
- Pedestrian malls in the United States
- Sunset Boulevard (Los Angeles)
- Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments
- Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles
- Historic districts in Los Angeles
- Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in California
- History of Los Angeles
- Tourist attractions in Los Angeles
- Art Deco architecture in California