What of the L.A. Mall?
Ed Fuentes
A pair of pedestrians walk through the main corridor of the Los Angeles Mall on Friday afternoon.
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — It's easy to forget about the Los Angeles Mall. The vaguely-named complex sits buried next to City Hall, housing fast food outlets, a handful of retailers and some service offices.
Even the City seems to forget about it. Councilwoman Janice Hahn filed a motion in 2005 asking for a report on the current status of the facility and plans to renovate it, but the motion expired without every moving out of committee.
Given the City's budget crisis, it makes sense that Councilwoman Jan Perry wants to make sure the facility is at least making some money. She filed a motion on January 26 asking for a report on the mall's total operating costs and a separate document detailing the facility's revenues.
The $26.7 million Los Angeles Mall opened in the early 1970's. It was designed to be active all day, somewhere that people could park, eat dinner, and then catch a "minibus" (as the early DASH was known) to the Music Center.
Plans to do a major renovation in the 1990's fell apart after the Children's Museum announced its intention to vacate the building it occupied on the mall's north end. While planning continued, no work was done.
Perry's motion was referred to the Information Technology and Government Affairs committee, and has not yet been calendared for a hearing.
Fabricio on February 05, 2010, at 04:44PM – #1
I've been living in the US for a little over 10 yrs and I always asked myself the reason why this mall is in the state it is. The location has so much potencial yet I don't see much going on or change as years go by. Other projects seem to have more priority for reasons I still don't understand.
Jasmijn on February 05, 2010, at 09:12PM – #2
It is a very weird place in many ways. From what I remember, it draws mainly from the INS applicants across the way in addition to office workers. We quite going when the Children's Museum left. I wish they could get something interesting like that again.
David on February 05, 2010, at 10:48PM – #3
This is a prime exhibit of why governments shouldn't run businesses -- they don't have the focus or the expertise to run anything like this. The same problems that are happening at El Pueblo, namely being an absentee landlord, is the same thing at the L.A. Mall. The City should sell the L.A. Mall and let someone with retail experience run and renovate it. No operator wants to deal with the City and their meddling when tenants squawk about raising rents or paying more in maintenance costs.
Phillip on February 06, 2010, at 07:53AM – #4
It's an abomination. Demo L.A. Mall cave and start over.
Alex Brideau III on February 06, 2010, at 10:25PM – #5
Yeah, the LA Mall is pretty depressing. The only highlight is the abundance of recycling bins.
Roger Christensen on February 07, 2010, at 07:52AM – #6
Historically it's located at what was the city's commercial center in the 1890s: The Junction. This is where Main, Spring, and Temple used to meet before Spring's diagonal was eliminated to accomodate today's City Hall. There is no reference to this today other than a plaque for the Bella Union Hotel site. I was shocked to walk by the other evening and discover that I now LOVE the lit Triforum!
jorgie on February 07, 2010, at 08:00AM – #7
Before we have any stores moving in and rennovating the mall, WE need PARKING structures like they have in Santa Monica!!!! Let the people park and they will come! AND DON'T RIP them off to park! Make it appealing to go there without spending $10-$20 to park your car!!!! Follow what other successful malls have done, and it doesn't have to look like Disneyland to be successful! Just make downtown PRACTICAL!
Bert Green (@bgfa) on February 07, 2010, at 10:40AM – #8
The LA Mall is not successful because it can never have an appeal to anyone other than workers in the surrounding buildings. Add to that the fact that is underground, so nobody else even knows it's there.
Look around downtown. Most of the underground malls are mostly empty (Arco Plaza, 7 & Fig). Contrast the LA Mall to Little Tokyo and the Historic Core, where there is street life and vibrant urbanism and it becomes clear that it is simply a planning disaster.
Vero Queero on February 07, 2010, at 12:14PM – #9
The city doesn't necessarily have to sell it, they could outsource its management to someone in the mall business such as Westfield (not my favorite but they have the experience). And as far as getting people underground, that's called marketing and promotions. It's not rocket science nor is it big budget. As far as ugly parking structures like Santa Monica? No, not here. Use the transportation. Or walk. It's not Target or Wal-Mart--you're not going to leave this mall with a trunk full of purchases.
Scott Mercer on February 11, 2010, at 01:16PM – #10
If you'd like to see the L.A. Mall back the day, probably shortly after it opened, check out the cult movie "Blue Sunshine." Available on DVD these days, but actually a rather obscure little indie horror movie from 1976. There's a campaign rally/shoot out scene at the Mall, which looks just as dreary as it does today even though it just opened. Check it out.