The tourists, shoppers and moviegoers who gather in throngs at the Hollywood & Highland complex now have the option to indulge in Japanese culture.
The world’s third installment of Japan House – a global project conceived by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and designed to promote that nation’s art, design, cuisine, technology and more – opened late last month at 6801 Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood.
Reynaldo Osegueda, a senior project manager at Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., led the brokerage’s project and development services team that oversaw the construction of the new venue, located on the second and fifth floors of the Hollywood & Highland complex.
The fifth-floor location, which opened Aug. 25, has an event venue, library and Inn Ann, a 1,200-square-foot Japanese restaurant that features views of the Los Angeles basin. The second floor features a retail shop, art gallery and a café. It opened in December 2017.
The JLL team oversaw project management, coordination of design teams in Los Angeles and Japan, scheduling, budgets, change orders as well as installation. Howard Building Corp., based in downtown Los Angeles, served as the project’s general contractor.
The other two Japan Houses are in London and Sao Paolo.
The grand opening of Japan House Los Angeles was Aug. 25 with an opening ceremony held the evening before.
George Takei of “Star Trek” fame was the master of ceremonies at the Ray Dolby Ballroom. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono toured the facilities and addressed the assembled guests. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti also gave a short speech recalling his experience as a high school exchange student in Japan.
Finally, Yoshiki, a long-time Los Angeles resident and superstar musician in his native Japan, was accompanied by a string quartet and entertained the audience on the piano with four songs, including “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Gang Green
Los Angeles matches its status as the nation’s second-largest U.S. city by population with the second-largest number of green-certified buildings in the United States, according to a recent study by CBRE Group Inc. and Netherlands-based Maastricht University.
Los Angeles has 363 green-certified buildings totaling nearly 116 million square feet, according to the fifth annual U.S. Green Building Adoption Index. Only Washington, D.C. bested Los Angeles, with 610 green-certified buildings featuring 168.7 million square feet of space.
Green office buildings are defined in the U.S as those holding an Energy Star label from the Environmental Protection Agency, a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating from the U.S. Green Building Council, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization, or both.
Los Angeles ranked fourth in the nation in terms of total square footage, with 56.3 percent of its total square footage green certified, trailing Chicago, Atlanta and San Francisco, respectively.
Lisa Colicchio, senior vice president of CBRE’s Southern California sustainability division, said in a statement that the city’s energy-saving mandates are playing a role to “further encourage companies to meet green certification standards and reduce their carbon footprint.”
Researchers found green-certified office space across the 30 largest U.S. cities has reached 41 percent of market totals – the highest ever, according to the study.
Architecture Firm Gets Gross
Nadel Inc., a Westside-based architectural design firm, has appointed Robert Gross, as the company’s multifamily division studio director.
Gross joined Nadel from Chris Dikeakos Architects Inc., a Canadian architecture firm with an office in downtown Los Angeles. Gross served as a senior architect at that firm for nearly 18 months.
Staff reporter Ciaran McEvoy can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 556-8337.
