Playa Vista in West Los Angeles recently lost

Playa Vista in West Los Angeles recently lost its most prominent tenant when DreamWorks SKG scrapped their plans for a studio. The facility represented only 4 percent of the entire development, and the loss won’t affect the rest of the building schedule, says spokesman David Herbst. Playa Vista President Peter Denniston said in 1998 that the DreamWorks deal was his highest priority and lent needed momentum to the project. Stefanos Polyzoides, an ardent new urbanist and one of the original designers of Playa Vista, has lamented the decline in its architectural standards, but Herbst maintains that Playa Vista continues to adhere to new urbanist guidelines. Several new architects are getting involved with the project, says Herbst, among them B3 Architects (Barry Burkiss), Robert M. Hidey Architects, the Steinberg Group, and McLarand Vasquez and Partners. Infrastructure work is underway, and Herbst expects the first buildings to be under construction by the end of the year.