Beverly Center
View from the intersection of La Cienega Blvd. and 3rd St, prior to renovations
Location8500 Beverly Blvd Los Angeles, California, U.S. 90048
Coordinates34°04′30″N 118°22′37″W / 34.075°N 118.377°W / 34.075; -118.377
Opening dateMarch 1982 (March 1982)
DeveloperA. Alfred Taubman, Sheldon Gordon & E. Phillip Lyon
ManagementTaubman Centers
OwnerTaubman Centers
ArchitectLou Nardorf of Welton Becket and Associates (original),[1] Massimiliano Fuksas and Doriana O. Mandrelli (2018 renovation)[2]
No. of stores and services100+
No. of anchor tenants2
Total retail floor area883,000 sq ft (82,000 m2)
No. of floors8
Websitehttps://beverlycenter.com/

Beverly Center is a shopping mall in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is an eight-story structure located at the edge of Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, between La Cienega and San Vicente boulevards. The mall features Bloomingdale's , Macy's, and Macy's Men's Store. The mall's dramatic six-story series of escalators offer visitors views of the Hollywood Hills, Downtown Los Angeles, and Los Angeles Westside.

History

Beverly Center at the corner of La Cienega Boulevard and Beverly Boulevard

The Beverly Center was originally opened in 1982 by developers A. Alfred Taubman, Sheldon Gordon, and E. Phillip Lyon. (The site's former occupant was a small amusement park known as "Beverly Park",[3] featuring a Ferris wheel, merry-go-round, and mini roller-coaster, and a pony ride called "Ponyland". The northeast corner of the mall, at the intersection of Beverly and La Cienega Boulevards, is the geographic center of the city's studio zone.

The mall's unusual shape and lack of street frontage along San Vicente Boulevard are the result of both its position at the intersection of a number of angled streets and its location above the Salt Lake Oil Field. As of 2009 the western portion of the mall property contained a cluster of oil wells in an active drilling enclosure operated by Freeport-McMoRan (formally Plains Exploration & Production.[4][5]

The mall opening featured the debut on July 16, 1982, of a multiplex movie theater containing 14 screens, then the largest number of movie screens in any US multiplex shopping mall. Even though the movie theater was located in Los Angeles, the opening was newsworthy enough to warrant a full article in The New York Times.[6] In the late 1980s, three smaller screens were removed on the main floor, so two larger auditoriums could be built on the roof. The theater portion of the mall was closed altogether on June 3, 2010.

The Beverly Center was originally anchored by Bullock's and The Broadway department stores, and in 1993 Bullock's opened a separate Bullock's Men's store, before both stores were renamed Macy's in 1996. The Broadway shuttered its location in 1996 when it was absorbed into Macy's and its previous outpost became a store format for Bloomingdale's in 1997.

In 2004, Taubman Centers, the public Real Estate Investment Trust and successor to A. Alfred Taubman's shopping center interests, purchased its partners minority investments stake in the property.

Beverly Center and West Hollywood Hills

The Beverly Center underwent a renovation from 2006 to 2008. These renovations included reconstructing the escalators visible from the outside.[7]

A food court formerly operated at the mall until 2014, when it was eliminated. Uniqlo opened one of its first Southern California locations in the space.[8][9] As part of renovations starting in 2016, the mall aims to bring restaurants back to the empty spaces on the street level.[10]

Starting in March 2016, the Center underwent a major renovation that aimed to add a food hall and several new street-level restaurants and a skylight. Renovation costs were given as US$500 million.[11][12] The new Center will also have a perforated steel facade on the outside of the building and an upgraded parking structure which will include technology to help drivers remember where they've parked.[13]

See also

References

  1. "ARCHITECTURE : It's Big, Chic and Famous, but Beverly Center's Not a Pretty Site". Los Angeles Times. November 14, 1991.
  2. "Renovation of Beverly Center / Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas". November 29, 2018.
  3. Meares, Hadley (November 2013). "Beverly Park and Ponyland: The 'Kiddieland' that Inspired Walt Disney". KCET. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
  4. "There's oil in them thar hills! Beverly, that is ..." StarTribune.com. June 27, 2008. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
  5. Landsberg, Mitchell (August 6, 2001). "Decades-Old Oil Field Dies as Fairfax Area Mall Takes Shape". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 4, 2009.
  6. "Beverly Center 13 Cinemas in Los Angeles, CA". Cinema Treasures. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
  7. Riley-Katz, Anne (January 9, 2008). "Calvin Klein Launches L.A. Retail". Women's Wear Daily.
  8. Coser, Crystal (December 4, 2015). "Beverly Center's P.F. Chang's Bites the Dust, Tartine/Blue Bottle Merger Nixed". Eater LA. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  9. Elliott, Farley (February 1, 2016). "CPK held out at the Beverly Center for a while, but now it too has closed". Eater LA. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  10. Chandler, Jenna (April 24, 2017). "Take a peek at Beverly Center's future food hall". Curbed LA. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  11. Li, Shan (March 6, 2016). "Beverly Center to undergo $500-million renovation that will add upscale food and sunlight". Los Angeles Times.
  12. Barragan, Bianca (March 7, 2016). "Huge: Beverly Center Getting Natural Light". Curbed LA. Retrieved June 1, 2016.
  13. Romero, Dennis (March 9, 2016). "Beverly Center, Mall of the Stars, Is Getting a Facelift (PHOTOS)". L.A. Weekly. Retrieved June 1, 2016.
  14. "2013 »". Film Forno. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
  15. "Waking Up With Kimye-Saturday Night Live". Genius.com. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
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