The Arts Club’s first venue in the Americas is finally beginning to take shape.
The Planning Commission reviewed revisions this week to long-standing plans to bring the establishment to West Hollywood.
The original Arts Club in London, whose famous founders include Charles Dickens and Lord Leighton, is a storied institution dating back to the 19th century. The private members club was a mecca for Europe’s literary and artistic power players such as Rudyard Kipling, Claude Monet and Auguste Rodin. Current members include Grayson Perry, the photographer Tom Hunter, the actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Kim Cattrall and also Ronnie Wood.
The West Hollywood establishment will not be called the Arts Club, even though its majority owners are the same.
The Planning Commission originally approved the project at 8920 Sunset Boulevard, the site of the former Hustler Store, back in 2018. The nine-story building would contain the club, offices, ground-floor retail areas, an art gallery open to the public, and 351 parking spaces across 120,000 square feet of total space.
Gensler presented a revised proposal to the Planning Commission this week that reduced the parking to 279 spaces, swapped guest club rooms for an additional 14,000 square feet of office space, and removed the rooftop pool.
The Planning Commission addressed concerns with the reduction of the parking spaces in the drive aisles and staging areas before proceeding with staff’s recommendation to move forward with the project in a 5-2 vote.
Ba-sic
Viper Room Block
An “Emergency Use Only” Helicopter Landing Pad is an excuse to increase already excessive helicopter traffic in this area. It is sure to become the “Santa Monica Airport No jets allowed” con for the rich and entitled to land and take off by paying a “fine”. I cannot even fathom a legitimate “Community Need” usage for a heliport on Sunset Strip. This is such an egregious betrayal of the West Hollywood constituents, the governing body should be RED with shame.
Viper Room Block
One of the troubling issues with West Hollywood is that it seems rudderless and has no idea what it wants to be. If there is an overarching philosophy or idea it remains a mystery. The original Mission Statement has been abused and corrupted in favor of expedient actions. Weho is wrongly referred to as “the creative city”. In actuality, it seems to propose potentially conflicting concepts to see what flies. The Community Development Department has no idea and simply manages surveys, consultants, myriad development projects that barely qualify under the code without cohesive direction. There is little enforcement of developed… Read more »
Nothing to crow about here. They should have a live music venue open to the public and pay the artists. That would be a Sunset Strip friendly business. We’re not the Art gallery demographic. considering the empty Offices on the strip, these are no more needed than more hotel rooms. People who might come from around the world for”sunset Strip” music will never come again. Epic Fail
[…] each level, screening rooms, a supper club, guest rooms, and a fitness center and spa. According to WeHoville, LA architecture firm Gensler submitted adjusted plans to reduce the number of parking spaces and […]
Another change, and not for the better. As others have said, it’s kind of bait-n-switch, but this is standard operating procedure for developers (Melrose Triangle, Viper Room block, Sunset/LaCienega mess, etc.). This thing should have been built by now after the 2018 approval. Now, four years later, it will be how long? Five years? Ten years? And then how many “over the counter” changes will happen during that time? I know there is a paucity of private clubs for wealthy people in town (cough, cough), but I question its long-term viability. I think that’s why we see all the office… Read more »
This should be housing. What a joke.
This project does not appear to have the ability to stand on its own. The composition seems weak and without the supposed cachet and name of The Arts Club, the reshuffling of interior space seems equally odd despite the parking shuffle.
As I commented earlier, it’s Gensler, so don’t expect something that’ll get you too excited. Considering all of this controversy with unpaid interns working for starchitects at SCI-Arc, probably for the best.
Quite familiar with Gensler projects and don’t object to it only the way the direction and use has been contorted.
Fantastic! Let’s get this built!
A warning to members of that club. Get your own security people because the SHE anti-police leaders will not be looking out for your safety. They’re only concern is pushing their own Woke socialist agenda.
Not sure what is socialist about the gender-race extremists who have taken over the “left”…
Can an article be posted on this site without this being brought up? Geez.
No mention of our 2019 vote about this project? No analysis of how these changes relate or might trigger another referendum?