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26 May 08

"L.A. vision: a towering sign," by David Zahniser (LA Times) - Astani Enterprises Inc

File this under "life imitates art"? There's a fascinating battle happening in LA over whether or not Sonny Astani, businessman and developer, should be permitted to install a new kind of LED-generated image, 12 stories above the street and 14 stories tall, on the side of his 33-story condo building currently under construction in downtown LA.

The inspiration? Opening scenes in Blade Runner of downtown LA, showing "a skyscraper-sized advertisement portraying a Japanese woman smiling before popping a snack into her mouth. Astani says an image, such as that of a flying sea gull, could now even travel from one building to the next."

I have to admit this sounds really cool, but I can see why many factions in LA would oppose this, too. We're all familiar with the really bright illuminated advertisements -- even Victoria has a small version of one, installed outside the arena on Blanshard at Caledonia. It's bright, too bright. But Astani proposes a much more modulated, artistic, and dimmed level of lighting. If the images could look as subtle -- yet powerful -- as Blade Runner's, it could work, but there's no garantee, that if permitted, subsequent developers would follow in that "artistic" style.

Another aspect is this: the proposal, if it's art, also calls into question just how intrusive public art should be in public space. Does it have a right to be so intrusive as to be impossible to ignore? Can I, as a citizen, be obliged to register public art -- and admittedly, it would be impossible not to register this project?

Is part of what captures my attention/ imagination regarding this project its uncanny fusion of subtlety and assault, packaged as visual stimulus?

Another question: is this an art form that expresses a corporate and anti-pedestrian city ("...neighborhood anchored by Staples Center and L.A. Live, the hotel and entertainment complex that includes the recently opened Nokia Theatre"), fitting for LA where people don't walk anyway (but just wait: it'll show up soon enough on the very v

www.astanienterprises.com/...article016.html - Preview

astani advertising billboards outdoor_installations public_art public_space los_angeles

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an animated sign 14-stories tall on the 33-story condominium
project he is building in downtown L.A.
The proposed sign would loom 12 stories above the sidewalk at
9th and Figueroa streets, facing the 110 Freeway. And city planners
say it would represent a first in the city's residential architecture
-- a sheet of light-emitting screens spaced close enough to form
a vast electronic image, yet far enough apart to allow occupants
to look outside.
9 more annotations...
- Astani's proposal is only the latest controversial effort to
  bring massive advertising and colorful light shows to the neighborhood
  anchored by Staples Center and L.A. Live, the hotel and entertainment
  complex that includes the recently opened Nokia Theatre.
  
  Civic boosters promised two years ago that L.A. Live would transform
  Figueroa's entertainment district into Times Square West -- a
  California counterpart to the bright lights and in-your-face
  advertising seen at Broadway and 42nd Street in Manhattan.
- Although much of L.A. Live is under construction, the district
  around Staples already has some of those colorful lights, including
  the red squares that percolate like soda bubbles on the exterior
  of the Met Lofts and the spotlights at Nokia that strafe the
  sky,
- at least two high-rises could be partly covered with rows of
  tiny panels embedded with LEDs, or light-emitting diodes -- a
  concept viewed by some at City Hall as the next frontier in outdoor
  advertising.
- In November, the City
  Council approved Fig Central, a hotel and condominium complex
  across from Staples Center that will have at least one 330-foot-long
  band of animated advertising. And at least seven more electronic
  signs are planned for the rest of L.A. Live, according to city
  officials.
  
  The courtyard outside Nokia Theatre has 12 LED signs -- enormous
  screens that intersperse concert footage with advertisements
  for mobile phones and Coca-Cola. The theater is adorned with
  more screens and billboards, a fact that disappoints some neighbors.
- "It might actually be beautiful," she said. "It
  might actually be art, as opposed to just ads."
- The billboard question seemed finally to have been answered
  in 2002, when then-Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, after 14 years
  of trying, won passage of a ban on outdoor advertising. But that
  law also contained a provision allowing the creation of "supplemental
  use districts," places like Hollywood, where billboards
  would be permitted in large numbers.
- he argues that his LED displays should
  not be considered billboards.
  
  To make the images less blinding, the signs would have a brightness
  of only 1,200 candelas at night -- roughly one-sixth the intensity
  of the signs found at L.A. Live, Astani said. And because the
  movements of his LED sign would be slower than the images on
  a television screen, Astani contends, his 14-story sign would
  be graceful, not gaudy.
  
  "We don't want to create a monster," Astani said. "If
  this is bright or intrusive, we cannot sell the condominiums.
  It will have to be so unique and unobtrusive that people will
  be proud to live behind it."
- If approved, the signs would contain artistic content during
  10% of their operation, with another 10% devoted to community
  announcements, according to Astani's proposal. The sign rules
  also would dictate the speed with which the animated images change.
  - Only 10% artistic content sounds pretty mingy... - on 2008-05-26
  Add Sticky Note
- Most of the companies installing the new lights have ties to
  City Hall. L.A. Live builder Anschutz Entertainment Group has
  given $485,000 to causes backed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
  The developer of Fig Central has given $100,000; Astani has given
  $150,000.