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And the Oscar goes to: TrizecHahn

By Debra Hazel

Just a little over a week after the 70th annual Oscar ceremony was held in Los Angeles, San Diego-based TrizecHahn Development brought home a prize of its own: a deal to build a permanent home for the Academy Awards at its upcoming Hollywood and Highland entertainment and retail center.

The new theater will be located across Hollywood Boulevard from the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, where the first Academy Awards were given in 1928. The last Oscar ceremony held in Hollywood took place in 1960.

The deal for the yet-to-be named, $50 million theater was more than a year in the making, said David Malmuth, senior vice president, development, for TrizecHahn Development.

A former Disney executive, Mr. Malmuth was involved in the renovation of 42nd Street and the rebirth of Times Square, including the restoration of theaters.

Mr. Malmuth first spoke with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences about a permanent home for its awards ceremony while he was still with Disney. But the Academy was reluctant to partner with one specific studio. TrizecHahn, unaffiliated with the film industry, provided the solution.

"Bruce Davis, the executive director of the Academy, is a resident of Hollywood and knew what we were doing," Mr. Malmuth said. The theater would not have been built if the Academy had not come on board, he added.

It was Mr. Davis, in fact, who broached the idea of a permanent home for the annual Oscarcast. For more than three decades, the Academy has alternated between the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the Shrine Auditorium, both in Los Angeles. Neither location was ideal: the Pavilion is relatively small to accommodate the stars and fans wishing to attend the awards ceremony, and the Shrine less well-located.

This new facility, being designed by The Rockwell Group, New York, and Theatre Projects Consultants, Stamford, Conn., will provide the latest technology for a worldwide telecast.

"We don't know if there is another theater specifically set up for a live broadcast," Mr. Malmuth said. A media "cockpit" will be located just behind the front seats, and the entire theater will be heavily, but invisibly, wired for the show.

"You can't see it in television, but there is wiring hanging throughout the theater for the Oscars. All of that will be built in," Mr. Malmuth said.

The theater will provide 3,300 good seats for Oscar spectators, and 3,500 seats for other live events. Essentially, the Academy will lease the theater for the month of March, with live performances being held at the facility for the remainder of the year. The Academy has a 20-year lease.

Other elements of the $350 million Hollywood & Highland project, to be designed by Ehrenkrantz & Eckstut Architects, will include: 135,000 square feet of studio and specialty retail; 100,000 square feet of entertainment uses; 70,000 square feet of restaurants and food courts; and 210,000 square feet of common area. In addition, Mann's Chinese Theatre will be renovated, and an adjacent 12-screen multiplex, Babylon Premiere Theatre, will be built.