Workers were busy Monday removing the 160-foot iconic radio tower from the corner of Van Ness Avenue and Sunset Boulevard. The plan is to restore the tower and then re-install it with updated KTLA signage on the western edge of the property at Sunset and Bronson, the tower’s original location from 1925-1950.
The tower was originally one of two on the lot built in 1925 to transmit Warner Brothers’ KFWB 980. The other was permanently removed in 1950 and this one was moved from in front of the building along Sunset at Bronson to the current location on Van Ness and Sunset. The KTLA call letters have been on display on the tower for more than 60 years.
The radio tower is being moved in order to make way for a 14-story Gensler designed high-tech office building that will anchor a newly developed media campus on the Sunset Bronson Studios lot. Developer Hudson Pacific Properties purchased the property – home to KTLA Channel 5 – from Tribune in 2007 for $130 Million. Construction began earlier this year on the overall project to re-new this 313,722 square foot property.
According to a Hudson Properties press release:
Hudson expects to break ground on Icon, a 14-story, 323,000-square-foot, high-tech office building on the northwest portion of the lot, in February of next year. Icon’s innovative design by Gensler architects integrates and enhances Sunset Bronson Studios’ historic character by improving site-lines and restoring the landmark office building’s façade, and featuring landscaping and architectural elements, such as free-standing columns and, of course, the former KFWB radio tower.
Read more:
Website – Hudson Pacific Properties | Sunset Bronson Studios
Website – Gensler Architects
Larchmont Buzz – Sunset Bronson Studios (May, 2014)