west hollywood real estate

Sunset Strip Shines at 9200 Sunset

I've often described Los Angeles as a city in search of its center. Downtown Los Angeles with its cluster of skyscrapers is slowly undergoing a resurgence (the L.A. Live complex is helping that along) but it could be argued that the Sunset Strip is really the heart of what the city represents. The section of Sunset Boulevard between Beverly Hills and Hollywood has been getting a lot of love lately. A recent initiative has installed larger-than-life guitars designed by celebrities in front of buildings along the street. The Strip has also been the site of several concerts this summer at various venues like the Roxy being filmed for an upcoming documentary on the Sunset Strip music scene.

But there's more than music going on here. There's also serious business and serious money on the scene. I stopped by the other day to check out one of the hottest commercial buildings in the area, 9200 Sunset. The building is a Sunset Strip classic, 9200 Sunset's three-story 50,000 square-foot office building was built in 1964 and the 14-story high rise was built in the early 1970s both by renowned American architect Charles Luckman. Luckman is a fascinating figure, not just an architect but a business man who was named the president of the Pepsodent toothpaste company in 1939 at the tender age of thirty and later became the president of Lever Brothers. After helping to plan the Lever Brothers' New York skyscraper, Lever House, he rediscovered his childhood love of architecture, resigned the presidency of Lever Brothers, moved to Los Angeles and began a second career in architecture. Luckman's firm went on to design the Prudential Tower in Boston, Madison Square Garden in New York City and the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston.

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