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Apple Shares Details on Planned Tower Theatre Flagship Store in Los Angeles
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That area is a total craphole with homeless detritus all around like a scene from dawn of the dead and earlyy release prop 47 and 57 criminals all over looking for stuff to steal. Sure I'll shop there for sure....
No worries. It will sail through. Will be on my list of places to visit on a future LA trip.
While I love theaters, art and culture (being a performer myself) it sounds like the venue wasn't being used for its intended purpose as of late.
From the article: "the theater... which has been mostly closed for decades."
So Apple made a deal... and they accepted.
I guess no one else wanted to refurbish the theater to be... a theater.
Looks nice. I was thinking about old buildings too when I saw that out-of-place glass box store in Spain. They have some old-fashioned stores too, and they look great.
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By the way, I'm from Los Angeles. I've been to that area a few times, and it's as ghetto as it gets. Right next to historic Skid Row. Not like they're building in some beautiful old town. Many of the buildings in that area are being repurposed. There are lots of warehouses there hosting art shows since they're cheap, allowing artists to not have to sell out as much.
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I'd consider live theater culture more important if it weren't spammed with cheesy musicals, probably the only thing that'd be shown there if they reopened it because they have to pay the bills somehow. Bring in the laptops.
By the way, I'm from Los Angeles. I've been to that area a few times, and it's as ghetto as it gets. Right next to historic Skid Row. Not like they're building in some beautiful old town. Many of the buildings in that area are being repurposed. There are lots of warehouses there hosting art shows since they're cheap, allowing artists to not have to sell out as much.
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This is not an exaggeration. I did some community service work there once, and that was before the criminals were being released. I'm actually not sure why they'd open a store there.
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Yup. I remember buying my first Mac in 1992 at a local independent. Luckily they were a quality operation. How things have changed.
I tend to doubt there will be anything "cheap" about this project. Not just this theater but most of the theaters in this part of Los Angeles have been in disarray for half a century. Many more were totally demolished over the years and are now lost forever. Others were gutted and converted to cheap and junky jewelry malls with only a marquee remaining.
Considering the state of things, I'll take a retail store that continues the turnaround in this area while preserving the architectural character over continued boarded up blight any day. All of these LA Broadway theaters weren't collectively sustainable as entertainment venues for a very long time and they wouldn't all be today. I'm happy that several have been renovated in the recent past to remain performance venues but you have to be realistic. These theaters were lost long years ago and you can't expect the needs of a city to remain the same after that long.
It would be a fair argument that I would agree with if they were still operating as grand old movie houses or live theater venues up to the recent past but that simply isn't the case here. The situation in this part of downtown Los Angeles is unique and really isn't comparable with any other city.
Impressive.
Apple redoing/updating stores in my area and they are just stunning.
Apple redoing/updating stores in my area and they are just stunning.
Have you been to this part of DTLA before? Describing this area as one store after another couldn't be farther from the reality.
Twenty years ago all of DT was filled with abandoned buildings. Totally dead after 6PM on a weekday or at any point on a weekend. Now people live there. There's restaurants. Concert venues. Hotels. It's a vibrant city. And stores are part of that. Before the mid 2000s there wasn't a grocery store in downtown for more than 50 years because no one lived there. Now there's several. None of this is bad. We have big time issues with gentrification pushing out poorer communities in many parts of Los Angeles and there's concerns with what happens as things change deeper into Skid Row, but there wasn't culture in this part of the city that's being erased through development. There really was practically nothing there for a very long time.
Some things about this story are incorrect: “the area around it has become outdated, leaving the building's owners and city council members eager for Apple's revitalization efforts” this area on Broadway in Los Angeles was the great showcase for movie palaces and theaters from the 1920’s with some of the best examples anywhere still located here. The area sadly fell into disrepair way back during the end of the 1960’s with white flight to the suburbs. Ironically the poor economics were one of the reasons that many of the great theaters still survive. It’s simply did not pay to tear them down and build anything in their place. Today downtown Los Angeles and especially Broadway and the Historic Core are experiencing quite a boom. Construction and restoration is taking off. Unfortunately though, the economics of the movie and theater industries are such that it’s difficult to make a profit off of some of these enormous single screen theaters, and there are still quite a few of these fabulous theaters still surviving on Broadway. Hopefully some of them will return to their original use but from all appearances the Apple restoration will be quite sensitive and should the economics change, could easily be transformed back into a theater someday.
Very true. Also to be considered is that some grand movie houses aren't easily converted to live theater or music venues because there isn't always a decent sized stage or wings. Options for revitalization in that way isn't always possible.
But I love when there are special one-off events on some of the old screens. Watching Blade Runner a few years back at the Million Dollar Theater -- where part of it was filmed -- was a great experience.
Many of you criticizing Apple’s plans come across as naive, pedantic, or just uninformed (and more than likely unfamiliar with Los Angeles). Should I remind you all, this was at one time a MOVIE theatre, for goodness sake - i.e. a retail establishment, not a live performance venue (not to mention, you already have a number of live stages in close proximity). There was/is nothing sacrosanct about this place outside of ornate design and its historic status which protects it from demolition. In its heyday, first-run motion pictures made by the large Hollywood studios was what they offered for sale. The whole reason it was abandoned was a reflection of the changing habits of consumers who no longer needed to come to Downtown LA for their shopping or entertainment needs and instead began to first frequent the area’s many drive-in theaters and later the large proliferation of multi-screen venues. A great many of the theaters along Broadway went dark and then saw new life as retail stores or houses of worship.
The way some of you reacted, you would think Apple was muscling out a bunch of independent businesses to build a retail Taj Mahal.
That Apple is now planning on moving into the space is merely a recognition of the fact that the population of Downtown LA has exploded in the past 20 years. This is not the same downtown I knew as a kid growing up in the late 70s and early 80s when downtown was primarily a place where you worked. But with 10s of thousands of residents in addition to the thousands who come in to work each day, as well as USC being nearby, building out a retail location is essentially a no-brainer. I will also add the long abandoned May Company/Hamburger’s department store building across the street is also undergoing a major transformation.
In my 51 years I can’t ever recall seeing moviegoers at this particular theater. Not only that, spaces get repurposed all the time. Grocery stores become office buildings. Bowling alleys become coffee shops. Movie theaters transform into houses of worship. Surely you are not saying if building X is built for a particular a particular purpose it must remain that way perpetually? Given that downtown already has large multi-screen venue at LA LIVE, believe me, (and as MRR explained regarding the economics of movie theaters today) there was little to no chance it was going to see life as a movie theatre ever again.
The way some of you reacted, you would think Apple was muscling out a bunch of independent businesses to build a retail Taj Mahal.
That Apple is now planning on moving into the space is merely a recognition of the fact that the population of Downtown LA has exploded in the past 20 years. This is not the same downtown I knew as a kid growing up in the late 70s and early 80s when downtown was primarily a place where you worked. But with 10s of thousands of residents in addition to the thousands who come in to work each day, as well as USC being nearby, building out a retail location is essentially a no-brainer. I will also add the long abandoned May Company/Hamburger’s department store building across the street is also undergoing a major transformation.
In my 51 years I can’t ever recall seeing moviegoers at this particular theater. Not only that, spaces get repurposed all the time. Grocery stores become office buildings. Bowling alleys become coffee shops. Movie theaters transform into houses of worship. Surely you are not saying if building X is built for a particular a particular purpose it must remain that way perpetually? Given that downtown already has large multi-screen venue at LA LIVE, believe me, (and as MRR explained regarding the economics of movie theaters today) there was little to no chance it was going to see life as a movie theatre ever again.
Plus the new Alamo Drafthouse Cinema that's going into that redevelopment at 7th and Hope. And Alamo does tons of one-off screenings at the beautifully renovated Ace down the street.
Sadly the historic theaters on broadway have been out of use for many decades. Any form of preservation (this) will see the building used by hundreds of thousands of people in a neighborhood that needs all the help it can get. It is totally nonviable as a theater, commercial or nonprofit, and a relic from a hundred years ago when movie and vaudeville palaces ruled downtown LA.
The DTLA area in general is (and has been) undergoing a huge transformation. There's still talks about bring the Red Car trolley back. The Alamo Drafthouse will be arriving shortly. Two new skyscrapers are planned for 11th & Olive, etc.
Companies are moving DTLA. Warner Music, Spotify, NetMarble (Huge South Korean Gaming Co.) are all moving downtown. There are a number of tech start ups already there. Even Netflix is planning on planning on buying one of the theaters.
Apple has been planning a retail store in DTLA for some time.
That makes sense. The times I went there, it was all warehouses, sometimes used for art shows and certain restaurants going for the "underground" vibe. In that case, it's exciting to hear big companies are moving there.
I am sure Lutz, FL is very impressive, but downtown LA has been on an incredible kick the last 10 years and is becoming a world class city center. This store is going to be gorgeous and unique. Apple would not be moving here if there was not a population of young, well educated folks with extra cash to spare.
I was in LA last week and stayed just around the corner from this in Historic DTLA. I have to say I cant imagine an Apple Store here. The area is in a state of decay with many homeless roaming the street. Quite sad actually. But maybe the city authorities want to improve the area by having Apple move in.
