Digital billboard will wrap around West Hollywood office building

The riddle wrapped in a mystery could well describe a billboard under construction in West Hollywood — with an enigmatic office building tucked inside.

United El Segundo, a holding company led by Ronald Appel based in Cheviot Hills, is behind the 29,000-square-foot office building and billboard at 8497 West Sunset Boulevard, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. It replaces a 31-unit apartment building.

The three-story office building, dubbed “The Now,” would be wrapped in digital signage at Sunset and La Cienega boulevards. The project is in conjunction with Rick Moses Development, based in Downtown.

Designed by Seattle-based Mithun, it features white offices with floor-to-ceiling windows, with second-floor columns and beams that open up like a mouth facing Sunset Boulevard, according to a rendering. The design was initiated by Hodgetts + Fung.

The digital sign, designed by artist Refik Anadol, juts from the right side of the building.

The building will include restaurants, shops, an outdoor dining terrace, a public plaza and a 3,000 square-foot “extensive green roof,” according to Mithun. 

A four-level, 54,000-square-foot underground parking garage for 138 cars, will go under the billboard-office-restaurant extravaganza.

“Poised at the intersection of two famous boulevards, this commercial development extends along an east-west axis, withdrawing on the street-level at an angle to define a public plaza beneath a creative billboard integrated into the building façade,” reads a project description by Mithun.

“On the upper levels, elevated terraces provide full-service dining and green space with commanding hillside views of greater Los Angeles.”

The architect claims its design brings “a much-needed gravity to the disarray of the Sunset Strip,” while meeting a city mandate to add digital media at select locations. 

United El Segundo is a holding company that owns prominent development sites in West L.A. and Santa Monica, according to Urbanize.

— Dana Bartholomew

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