Crossroads of the World is an open-air mall on

Sunset Boulevard Sunset Boulevard is a boulevard in the central and western part of Los Angeles, California, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades east to Figueroa Street in Downtown Los Angeles. It is a major thoroughfare in ...

and Las Palmas in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

. The mall features a central building designed to resemble an

ocean liner An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). Ca ...

surrounded by a small village of

cottage A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager had to provide ...

-style bungalows. It was designed by

Robert V. Derrah Robert V. Derrah was an American architect. His work included designs for the Crossroads of the World (1936), Coca-Cola Building (Los Angeles) and a 1942 extension on the Southern California Gas Company Complex. He died at the age of 51 in 1946 ...

, built in 1936, and has been called

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

's first outdoor

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that ...

. Once a busy shopping center, the Crossroads later became private offices, primarily for the entertainment industry with a variety of music publishers and producers, television and film script writers, film and recording companies, novelists, costume designers, publicists, and casting agencies. The owner is planning a new development surrounding the site.

History

In 1931, after

Charles H. Crawford Charles H. Crawford (April 22, 1879 – May 20, 1931) was an American political figure. In the 1920s, his loosely organized crime syndicate in Los Angeles, California, was known as the "City Hall Gang." Crawford was reportedly a model for some o ...

's death, his wife Ella decided to build a multi-national outdoor market - that would feel like «a permanent world's fair with a cosmopolitan atmosphere» - on the land where her husband was shot. She hired the

Streamline Moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial desig ...

architect

(who was finishing his work on the Coca-Cola Building) to design the complex.Kim Sudhalter
Have you ever wondered... What the Crossroads of the World is all about?
''Onlyinhollywood.com'', 1 December 2014 Derrah designed a ship-shaped structure in the center of the complex. The surrounding buildings represented different countries of the world. The complex originally held 57 shops and cafes, and 36 offices on the upper floors. The Crossroads of the World was inaugurated on October 29, 1936. The new shopping center was not a full-blown success, but it became an excellent model for outdoors malls across the world. In the 1950s, the Crossroads of the World was converted into an office complex. The

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to me ...

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) were a folk rock supergroup made up of American singer-songwriters David Crosby and Stephen Stills and English singer-songwriter Graham Nash. When joined by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young as a fourth member ...

Jackson Browne Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and political activist who has sold over 18 million albums in the United States. Emerging as a precocious teenage songwriter in mid-1960s Los Angeles, he h ...

and

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

used to rent offices there. The property was purchased in 1977 by the real estate investor

Mort La Kretz ''Mort'' is a fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett. Published in 1987, it is the fourth ''Discworld'' novel and the first to focus on the character Death (Discworld), Death, who only appeared as a side character in the previous novels ...

and restored. On June 1, 1985, Michael Perricone founded Interlock Studios, an

audio post production Audio post production is all stages of audio production relating to sound produced and synchronized with moving picture (film, television, or video). It involves sound design, sound effects, Foley, ADR, sound editing, audio mixing, mastering e ...

facility, which was located in Bungalow 1522 of the complex, until 1998, when it relocated to 6520

, and was sold to Rick Larson a few years later, who renamed it Larson Studios. In January 2019, the Los Angeles City Council approved the project to revamp the Crossroads of the World in a move to revitalize the district. Three high-rise buildings are planned to bring 950 apartments and condos, a 308-room hotel, and of commercial space. Preservationists called the redevelopment project a "

Manhattanization ''Manhattanization'' is a neologism coined to describe the construction of many tall or densely situated buildings, which transforms the appearance and character of a city to what is similar to Manhattan, the most densely populated borough of New ...

of Hollywood". Eighty-two

Hollywood Regency Hollywood Regency, sometimes called Regency Moderne, is a design style that describes both interior design and landscape architecture characterized by the bold use of color and contrast often with metallic and glass accents meant to signify both op ...

garden apartments are to be demolished in the project. These rent stabilized apartments are occupied by a decades-old, tight-knit community of largely low-income, predominantly Latino residents. Over 100 apartments in the project will be set aside for very low-income families.

In popular culture

Films: *''

L.A. Confidential ''L.A. Confidential'' (1990) is a neo-noir novel by James Ellroy and the third of his L.A. Quartet series. It is dedicated to Mary Doherty Ellroy. The epigraph is "A glory that costs everything and means nothing"—Steve Erickson. Plot The s ...

'' *''

Indecent Proposal ''Indecent Proposal'' is a 1993 American erotic drama film directed by Adrian Lyne and written by Amy Holden Jones. It is based on the 1988 novel by Jack Engelhard, in which a couple's marriage is disrupted by a stranger's offer of a million d ...

'' *''

The Adventures of Ford Fairlane ''The Adventures of Ford Fairlane'' is a 1990 American action comedy mystery film directed by Renny Harlin and written by David Arnott, James Cappe, and Daniel Waters based on a story by Arnott and Cappe. The film stars comedian Andrew Di ...

'' *''

Café Society Café society was the description of the "Beautiful People" and "Bright Young Things" who gathered in fashionable cafés and restaurants in New York, Paris and London beginning in the late 19th century. Maury Henry Biddle Paul is credited with ...

'' *''

Nancy Drew Nancy Drew is a fictional character appearing in several mystery book series, movies, and a TV show as a teenage amateur sleuth. The books are ghostwritten by a number of authors and published under the collective pseudonym Carolyn Keene. Cre ...

'' *''

Argo In Greek mythology the ''Argo'' (; in Greek: ) was a ship built with the help of the gods that Jason and the Argonauts sailed from Iolcos to Colchis to retrieve the Golden Fleece. The ship has gone on to be used as a motif in a variety of ...

'' TV shows *'' Dragnet'' *''

Remington Steele ''Remington Steele'' is an American television series co-created by Robert Butler and Michael Gleason. The series, starring Stephanie Zimbalist and Pierce Brosnan, was produced by MTM Enterprises and first broadcast on the NBC network from O ...

'' *'' Tenspeed and Brown Shoe'' *'' Bosch'' Commercials: *

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company has presence in 35 countries and territories and sells products in mor ...

Music Video: *

Big Audio Dynamite Big Audio Dynamite (later known as Big Audio Dynamite II and Big Audio, and often abbreviated BAD) were an English band, formed in London in 1984 by Mick Jones, former lead guitarist, and co-lead vocalist of the Clash. The band mixed various mu ...

The Globe (album)

The Globe (song) "The Globe" is a 1991 song by British electronic group Big Audio Dynamite, Big Audio Dynamite II. It was released as a single in the United States and is taken from their album ''The Globe (album), The Globe''. It samples the 1981 song "Should I ...

The Xx The xx are an English indie rock band from Wandsworth, London, formed in 2005. The band consists of Romy Madley Croft (guitar, vocals), Oliver Sim (bass guitar, vocals), Jamie Smith, also known as Jamie xx (beats, MPC, record production), an ...

I See You (album) I Dare You (song) Video Game: * Midnight Club: Los Angeles

Reproductions

A reproduction of Crossroads' iconic tower and spinning globe can be seen just inside the entrance to

Disney's Hollywood Studios Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Based on a concept by M ...

Walt Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crossroads Of The World Buildings and structures in Hollywood, Los Angeles Commercial buildings in Los Angeles Shopping malls in Central Los Angeles Pedestrian malls in the United States Sunset Boulevard (Los Angeles) Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles Historic districts in Los Angeles Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in California History of Los Angeles Tourist attractions in Los Angeles Art Deco architecture in California

History

In popular culture

Reproductions

See also

References

External links