Thursday, March 29, 2007

A Market on Fire

Most everyone who has been to West Hollywood knows the "Blue Whale," that huge blue glass office building that opened at the Pacific Design Center in 1975. And you can't forget its bright green neighbor that came along in 1988.

Now it's time for the red one — really red, like a new Ferrari.

Today, the $160-million office building starts to take shape with renowned architect Cesar Pelli on hand as decades of plans and dreams and skepticism give way to the formal groundbreaking.

The red glass structure will be on San Vicente Boulevard, just south of Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. Anticipated for years, it would be one of the nation's few bright-red office buildings — practically unheard of in the buttoned-down commercial real estate world that favors muted shades guaranteed not to offend the sensibilities of potential corporate renters.

"This is probably the only place in the world you could get away with it," said dapper New York builder Charles Steven Cohen, owner of the Pacific Design Center and the man betting that business owners will pay good money for a spot in a flame-colored building.
Here's what the Pacific Design Center is expected to look like after completion of the new structure.

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