Subway-to-the... VA Hospital?

According to Metro's latest round of community update meetings, the so-called Subway-to-the-Sea rail extension to Santa Monica is simply "out of the realm of funding feasibility," as is the spur joining Hollywood and Highland to the Wilshire route via Santa Monica Blvd. We knew Villaraigosa's 30-10 initiative was too good to be true. But look at the bright side, thanks to Measure R spending, construction on the subway line could begin as soon as the end of 2011.

Initially, construction of the first phase would terminate at a station in Westwood near Wilshire Blvd. But after suggestions by locals, project planners found that a 1-stop extension beyond the 405 to the Veterans Administration campus would indeed return higher ridership and decrease traffic congestion under the freeway. Beyond the VA however, ridership estimates decrease with every successive station, meaning dwindled fiscal feasibility. While Subway-to-the-Sea certainly has a nice ring to it, there simply isn't enough demand in the Santa Monica area to warrant an expensive underground rail construction, especially considering that the Expo phase 2 light rail extension to Santa Monica is already approved and will be completed far sooner than any phase on the Wilshire route. The UCLA area is home to the city's second largest job center outside of Downtown and will benefit enormously from the traffic relief and increased mobility brought by a more expedient subway extension.

As for the Santa Monica Blvd spur, the connection between Hollywood and Beverly Hills will make sense in the future, but right now that stretch also doesn't support the critical building density that would make a subway line pencil out. But as long as the City of West Hollywood continues its hungry, authoritarian concessions to big name developers, the Santa Monica Blvd corridor may well get its subway.

W. Hollywood Entrusts New Cultural Center to Bolster Rep as "Creative City"

The City of West Hollywood has hired Heery International to build phase 1 of the city's master plan - a 32,000 sf library along with 2.5 acres of parkspace adjacent to the Pacific Design Center. The project, which will break ground in about a month, was planned and designed by Culver City architecture firm MDA Johnson Favaro. The library, which will be about six times larger than the decrepit original, will boast high-tech features like video-conferencing rooms and pervasive wireless connectivity. Two parking structures will house an additional 400 spots, in the city infamously strapped for parking.

The added parkspace will combine with the existing West Hollywood Park, located at the intersection of San Vicente Blvd and Santa Monica Blvd. Directly accross from the Pac Design Center on San Vicente, a cafe will be installed with broad sidewalk eating space. The city's master plan, which is split into three installments, is geared toward providing the city with more parkspace and more program to accomodate the city's growing family population. The center will contribute to the cluster of existing and future cultural buildings around the important intersection. If ever realized, Cesar Pelli's much-hyped "Red Boat" will complete the Design Center's Holy Trinity of colorful iconic colossi. The funding-starved project that was proposed in 2006 was slated for completion last year. Aside from a bunch of glossy PR, little has been said for the Charles Cohen venture. Stay tuned for more.

As for WeHo's new Park(ing), Curbed LA has made a good point - shouldn't we have learned something from Pershing Square's dreadful combination of park and parking? And West Hollywood is known for a lot of things, but I can't help but feel a little skeptical about the power of a library and a showroom-on-steroids to spawn a "City of Creativity."