The proposed Academy Museum at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue is scheduled to go before the Los Angeles Planning Commission in May, but many residents still have reservations about the project, particularly its use of digital signs.

The proposed Academy Museum, if approved, would include digital signage on the street-level. (Rendering by ©Renzo Piano Building Workshop/© Studio Pali Fekete architects/©A.M.P.A.S.)

On Monday, the city conducted a public hearing at which comments were collected ahead of a tentatively scheduled May 14 meeting of the Los Angeles Planning Commission. While many in attendance applauded the plans for the future museum, there are still some neighbors wary about the project, including the Miracle Mile Residential Association (MMRA) and the Carthay Circle Neighborhood Association (CCNA).

“We are fearful of nightmarish traffic intrusion and parking problems that the cars and buses coming to the project will bring to an area that presently has to cope with severe congestion and limited parking for its residents,” CCNA president Ivan Light said in a letter from the association. “And we are dismayed at the radical change in character and atmosphere of our community that the project’s proposed lighting and electronic signage will bring.”

The proposed Academy Museum would be dedicated to films and filmmaking. It would include permanent and changing exhibition spaces and three theatres with a combined seating capacity of up to 1,350 people. Plans include a banquet and conference space with a maximum occupancy of 1,200 people. An approximately 4,000-square-foot café with seating for 150 people and an approximately 5,000-square-foot store are also planned.

The proposed development would rehabilitate and adaptively reuse the exterior of the May Company Wilshire building, which is classified as a city historic-cultural monument.

Plans also call for the demolition of a 1946 addition to build what is being called the New Wing. The New Wing would include a spherical structure housing a state-of-the-art theatre with seating for up to 1,000 people, which could be used for special events and occasional exhibits.

Originally, Academy officials had called for several dozen digital signs to be used all over the main building. In the final environmental impact report (FEIR), the scale has been reduced. As currently proposed, there will only be 12 first floor, storefront-level signs. Academy officials said they have removed plans for 33 digital signs that would have been placed in upper-level windows as a way to show they are working with neighbors.

“We definitely took notes, listened to community members and listened to their concerns,” said Bill Kramer, managing director of the museum and external relations. “We wanted to address their concerns as best we could. It is very important to let people know this is not an entertainment district like L.A. Live. Our digital signage is street level and very small in scale.”

Each sign is projected to be approximately 60 to 70 square feet in size.

“These would be elegant digital images showing moving images tied to what is happening in the building,” Kramer said. “This is not L.A. Live, this is appropriate for a cultural institution.”

In order to install that amount of signage, Academy officials are requesting their site be allowed as a Sign Supplemental Use District, which requires three acres of land. The Academy site is 2.2 acres, but it has received permission from the adjacent Los Angles County Museum of Art (LACMA) to stretch to the necessary three acres to create the district.

“This property really shouldn’t qualify for a sign district,” said Dennis Hathaway, president of the Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight. “Maybe [the LACMA agreement] is technically legal, but it is certainly not in the spirit of the sign district laws.”

Hathaway said he is appreciative of the Academy scaling back the amount of digital signage for the FEIR.

“That is an improvement, but we still think there is a potential distraction for motorists and pedestrians at that intersection,” he added.

MMRA vice president Ken Hixon said the association believes the signage violates the terms and spirit of the Miracle Mile Community Design Overlay. Specifically, he added, the signage will be in competition with the historic-cultural monument aspects of the original building.

“If someone proposed city hall [to be renovated in this way] I don’t think it would wash,” he said. “What’s the point of being a cultural-historic monument if we can’t protect the aesthetics of the building?”

Kramer countered that Academy officials believe the adaptive reuse of the storefront windows is in a manner consistent with the goals and guidelines of the Miracle Mile Community Design Overlay, “for reuse of historic buildings and contextual promotion of Museum Row.”

“The sign district only allows signage that is otherwise permitted by code in this area, which provides a good buffer for the residential community to the north,” Kramer said. “We consulted with the planning department on our application, and they concurred that the three acres meets the code requirements for sign districts.”

Kramer added that the Los Angeles Department of Transportation studied the traffic impacts of the digital signs, and signed off on the plan.

The Academy Museum still must pass the Los Angeles Planning Commission, the Los Angeles City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee and then the full city council.

Academy officials have said they are hopeful they can begin construction later this year for a projected 2017 opening.