Painted Ads Returning to the Hotel Figueroa
Eric Richardson / blogdowntown
A crew from Wall Dogs starts work on a painted ad that will be on the south face of the Hotel Figueroa.
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — After a 29 month absence, painted ads appear to be headed back to the walls of the Hotel Figueroa. Crews from Walldogs were on both the north and south sides of the building on Thursday, painting a white base coat.
Ads had been absent from the L.A. Live-adjacent building since approximately May of last year as the City Attorney's office pursued legal charges against the building owner and CBS Outdoor for their switch to vinyl ads in December of 2008.
While the painted signs that had been on the building previously were permitted, the vinyl stickers were not. CBS and the City Attorney's office settled in March, with the advertising company paying the city just over $4 million.
crystal on April 28, 2011, at 01:54PM – #1
Awesome! I missed the ads. Painted is much better than vinyl.
David Crowley on April 28, 2011, at 02:38PM – #2
painted is cooler than vinyl but I don't really understand why the city made such a fuss about it.
Eric Wang on April 28, 2011, at 03:41PM – #3
Although the arguments seem to descend into politics, the main concern is the fear that large pieces of vinyl and graphics may come off the side of the building, and land on the street or damage property. Scary thought when you think about it, and not unlikely to happen. Paint is lots cooler than vinyl.
Jon on April 28, 2011, at 06:32PM – #4
Now they just need to let the Hanover display off-site ads. Ridiculous that they're located catacorner to LA Live and can't do that.
Will the Hanover situation be fixed by the sign district planned for the new Wilshire Grand towers?
Brandy Zzyzx on April 28, 2011, at 08:21PM – #5
So this advertising is "great" and private murals aren't.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0407-fence-whitewash-2-20110407,0,5744040.story
http://laist.com/2010/02/25/city_says_downtown_mural_must_go.php
Come on, LA, get your act together
JDRCRASHER on April 29, 2011, at 09:01PM – #6
David, the thing is the Billboard Industry was completely unregulated, with no restrictions. As a result, billboards are all over the city; hence the backlash.
Restrict billboards to Hollywood Blvd (between La Brea and Highland), and in South Park (in an area bounded by 9th, Flower, Venice, and Cherry). These billboard districts actually already exist, but encompass a larger area; they just need to be smaller. Then tax the billboard districts, and use the funds for arts programs and other community projects, like what's done in Toronto. Then ban the billboards everywhere else and fine the billboard companies after a certain amount of time when the ban is enacted, for each billboard they fail to take down that is outside the signage districts. In turn, well over 90% of the city would be ad-free. There's no excuse why this can't be done without lawsuits when it has already been done in many cities.
asdf on May 16, 2011, at 05:59PM – #7
almost completed wall here:
http://twitpic.com/4vz9xu/full
i guess this is the final product. it's really really ugly. whoever did it doesn't really understand how to use photoshop--look at how there are weird drop shadows everywhere and ice isn't even see-through! In fact, the ice looks like liquid metal from Terminator 2.
Bad composition and bad photoshopping. What a shame. Hopefully they'll put up something a lot better before E3.