Emerson College, seeking to upgrade its film and television training center, is relocating the program to Hollywood from Burbank, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The Boston-based school, known for its communications and acting curriculum, will build a facility on the former Tribune Studios lot in Hollywood to teach and house the 95 Emerson students who pass through its Los Angles Center program each semester.
The property, which also houses KTLA-TV Channel 5, is part of a larger site that was sold for $125 million in January by Tribune Co., the Chicago-based owner of the Los Angeles Times, to Hudson Capital, a Los Angeles-based real estate investment firm. The school spent $12 million last month for the 37,244-square-foot property, known as Parking Lot B, at Sunset Boulevard and Gordon Street.
The Los Angeles Center funnels Emerson students from the main Boston campus through professional media internships while also offering regular academic classes. More than 3,000 Emerson alumni, including talk show host Jay Leno, actor Denis Leary and cosmetics entrepreneur Bobbi Brown, live in L.A.
Although well-known film schools at USC, UCLA and Chapman University already dominate film education in the area, Emerson officials said they hoped a permanent location in the physical — if not metaphorical — epicenter of Hollywood would boost the school’s profile, in addition to improving access for students.
