New movie museum stars in area drama

| January 28, 2015 | 0 Comments
ACADEMY PRESIDENT Cheryl Boone Isaacs, Hancock Park, laid out plans for the "entertainment center" recently to the Wilshire Rotary Club. Planning Dept. officials are expected to release a final environmental impact report this month for the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

ACADEMY PRESIDENT Cheryl Boone Isaacs, Hancock Park, laid out plans for the “entertainment center” recently to the Wilshire Rotary Club. Planning Dept. officials are expected to release a final environmental impact report this month for the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

Premieres, galas and exhibits are expected to draw celebrities, tourists and cars, cars and more cars once the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opens at 6067 Wilshire Blvd.

The impact of the six-story movie museum and “entertainment center“ is not being addressed in a draft Environmental Impact Report on the 208,000 square foot project, said James O’Sullivan, president, Miracle Mile Residential Association.

He was joined by presidents of the Beverly Wilshire Homes Association and Carthay Circle Neighborhood Association in a letter addressed to the Mid City West Community Council board of directors and the Joint Committee Working Group on the Academy Museum Project.

“All three of our organizations have reached the conclusion that the Academy Museum DEIR is so flawed, inaccurate and incomplete that it must be redone and re-circulated,” according to the Jan. 4 letter from the three neighborhood groups.
“We are overwhelmed,” O’Sullivan said.

THE MMRA HIRED a traffic engineer to study the 9,000-page draft EIR. His findings included an estimated 5,000 people a day are expected to visit the Renzo Piano-designed museum. The number was altered in the document when factoring in visitors to the L.A. County Museum of Art next door. Many assumptions were made for a project akin to “having Staples Center on Wilshire and Fairfax,” O’Sullivan said.

“The project has the potential to work, but serious hurdles remain relative to parking, the circulation of people and cars in and around the project, and signage,” said Cary Brazeman, chair Mid City West Community Council Planning and Land Use Committee.

According to the Academy, the DEIR found that the Museum’s impact on parking, operating noise, light, glare and aesthetics, among many others, would be less than significant.

“PROJECT DESIGN features include (1) no amplified sound after 10 p.m. in outdoor areas, (2) restrictions of operational lighting (signage), (3) green building measures to achieve LEED Silver or equivalent, and (4) a materials conservation plan for historic preservation of the original May Company building,” the Academy website continued.

The city is reviewing public comment and expected to release a Final EIR this month.
Dedicated to the art and craft of films and filmmaking, the museum will include a sphere housing a 1,000-seat theater with a view deck and pedestrian bridges and a ground-floor piazza.

It includes exhibition space, three theaters, banquet and conference space a 4,000-square foot café and a museum store.

Existing off-site parking and joint use with the L.A. County Museum of Art, as well as parking spaces for 88 bicycles is also planned.

The 1939 May Co. will be retrofitted into the new museum, except for a 1946 addition in the back.

Still to come are public hearings at the Planning Commission, City Council Planning and Land Use Management Committee, and the full City Council.

The museum is expected to open in 2017.

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Category: Entertainment

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