
In anticipation of a possible sale, the Los Angeles Conservancy submitted a nomination to designate the CBS Television City complex as a Historic-Cultural Monument (HCM) earlier this month, following news reports that CBS Corporation was potentially interested in selling or developing the 25-acre property.
According to the Conservancy, the announcement of a potential sale has raised widespread concern over the fate of the architecturally and culturally significant campus, which was identified as National Register-eligible in Los Angeles’ SurveyLA.
Former Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky urged protection of the historic studio complex at Beverly and Fairfax in an editorial in the Los Angeles Times.
“What becomes of Television City is a citywide concern as much as it is a neighborhood one. Los Angeles should not let developers turn the historic studio complex into a mini Century City,” wrote Yaroslavsky.
“Television City is architecturally significant. Designed by William Pereira, who also designed the pyramid-shaped Transamerica building in San Francisco, the complex is one of L.A.’s most significant representations of the mid-century modern “Corporate International” architectural style. It has a distinctive, campus feel, owed in part to the way its office building and soundstages are set back along the north and west sides of the property.”