A Glamorous Gentrification: Public Art and Urban Redevelopment in Hollywood, California

Abstract

This paper will discuss the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority's Art programme. In particular, it will examine Gilbert ‘Magu’ Lujan's design for the subway station at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street and how it has been mobilized to serve the city's renewal. Often referred to by the title ‘Hooray for Hollywood’ (1999), Lujan's design is an example of a public art project used to brand urban space by reinforcing the city's historical connection to the film industry. It constructs a material dimension to the association between the streets of Hollywood and the concept of glamour. However, as will be argued, a glamorized Hollywood threatens to displace those communities and individuals that exist along the neighbourhood's social periphery. In other words, glamour promises to efface those very extremes that have long characterized the urban space in Hollywood.

Acknowledgements

Research for this project was completed through the support of a Postdoctoral Fellowship from Carnegie Mellon University's Center for the Arts in Society. The author is grateful to friends and colleagues at CMU, in particular Ting Chang, for their encouragement and assistance. Thanks are also due to Matthew E. Cohen and Stephen Box for permission to publish their photographs and to the editorial staff and anonymous readers who offered invaluable feedback during the revision process.