The decorated Christmas houses, bedecked in wreaths and lights and the mythology of Christmas, and the haunted houses of Halloween, draped in fake spiders’ webs and punctuated by plastic pumpkins, are two sides of the fantasy. The suburban house represents freedom and independence just as it can come to represent a trap. — Financial Times

The Bailey House, one of the approximately 20 surviving Los Angeles residences from Arts & Architecture magazine’s Case Study House program is once again up for grabs.

Designated CSH No. 21, the Hollywood Hills home was built between 1956 and ’58 by Pierre Koenig for psychologist Walter Bailey and his wife Mary, whom Arts & Architecture described as a “contemporary-minded” couple with no children and an informal lifestyle. — Curbed LA

The environmental review period for the $1-billion Hollywood Center development has kicked off, and an initial report for the project offers up new details on what's to come.

The proposed mixed-use complex, slated for 4.5 acres of surface parking that wraps the iconic Capitol Records Building, would consist of four new buildings containing a total of 1,005 residential units - including 133 apartments to be set aside for extremely-low- and very-low-income seniors. — urbanize.la

[Warner Bros.] would foot the bill for an aerial tramway to transport visitors to and from the Hollywood sign, starting from a parking structure next to its Burbank lot.

The effort, dubbed the Hollywood Skyway, would cost the studio an estimated $100 million, according to a person close to the company who was not authorized to comment. The tramway would take visitors on a 6-minute ride more than 1 mile up the back of Mt. Lee to a new visitors center near the sign [...] — Los Angeles Times

Developer MP Los Angeles has announced plans to construct Hollywood Center, a $1-billion mixed-use complex near the Capitol Records Building in Hollywood.

According to MP Los Angeles, the project - which was filed today with the City of Los Angeles - will feature the largest on-site affordable housing component of any market-rate development in the history of the city.  — urbanize.la

Community leaders and affected homeowners have mixed reactions regarding a consultant’s recently released recommendations on how to best provide relief for residential communities besieged with Hollywood Sign tourists.

The recommendations, released in January and commissioned by Los Angeles City Councilmember David Ryu, ranged in impact from the jaw-dropping, like the idea of installing a second Hollywood sign, to the mundane, like improving signage for lost tourists. — Los Feliz Ledger

L.A. now boasts the tallest building west of Chicago—the Wilshire Grand Center in the Downtown district. “If you watch the opening sequence of Blade Runner from 1982 and look at how it imagines L.A.’s skyline in 2019, you can’t help sense life emulating art"
Meanwhile, the creators of the sumptuous new Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills traveled back in time for inspiration...“We studied everything from the decor of the movie sets to the style of leading Hollywood actresses” — Architectural Digest

To snap a photo of the Hollywood sign, tourists have clogged hillside streets and hiking paths, spurring battles in Hollywood Hills neighborhoods and in court over how people should be able to access the iconic landmark.

Now Mayor Eric Garcetti has floated an alternative: Building a gondola to ferry visitors to the beloved sign. — The Los Angeles Times

What’s the root cause of Los Angeles’ affordable housing crisis? Many blame the new luxury housing developments springing up... driving up interest in the neighborhood and attracting hipsters. Landlords take notice and soon rents start climbing. That’s the story anyway.

But here’s the thing: If booming development in hot markets like Hollywood and downtown is why rents keep going up... why have the same price increases hit locales with extremely limited development? — LA Times

A first-in-the-nation complex to be built in Hollywood would house about 200 LGBT seniors and young adults on the same campus.

Lorrie Jean, CEO of the the Los Angeles LGBT Center, which is building the $100 million complex, calls the two generation groups "the two most vulnerable parts of our community." — scpr.org

The pull of the Hollywood sign has...generated anger along the winding roads in those hills as homeowners have complained of a crush of motorists clogging roads, hikers in the middle of narrow streets and smokers flicking cigarettes into flammable brush... Now some homeowners are taking their battle to court, demanding that the city close a popular path into Griffith Park used to view the famed sign until the effects on the neighborhood have been fully evaluated. — latimes.com

At the end of a cul de sac near the Hollywood Bowl, park your car in a garage carved into the hill. Walk through a gated tunnel to a private elevator where you'll be taken up 6 stories through the hill to the top of a Tuscan tower. Nestled in a quiet walk street enclave high above the bustle of Hollywood Blvd.

1bed, 1 bath includes the aforementioned private parking garage (remote door opener). Washer/Dryer, hardwood floors and terrace. — Craigslist