The Hollywood & Highland Center including entertainment, retail and hotel space at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue in Los Angeles. The center also housing the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and the Kodak Theatre, home to the Academy Awards. The historic site was once the home of the famed Hollywood Hotel.
The complex sits just opposite of the El Capitan Theatre and offers views of the Hollywood Hills and Hollywood Sign to the north, Santa Monica Mountains to the west and downtown Los Angeles to the east. The centerpiece of the complex is a massive three-story courtyard inspired by the Babylon scene from the D.W. Griffith film Intolerance. The developer of the shopping center built part of the archway and 2 pillars with elephant sculptures on the capitals, just as seen in the film, to the same full scale. It gives visitors an idea of how large the original set must have been.
Tenants include 75 shops and restaurants, a movie theater, The Highlands nightclub and a bowling alley called Lucky Strike Lanes. The portion of the center facing Hollywood Boulevard houses retail tenants such as GAP,
American Eagle, Banana Republic, Build-A-Bear Workshop, Sephora, Swatch, Express, and Hollywood’s second Virgin Megastore, which opened in early fall 2005.
Hollywood & Highland also including 65,000 square feet (6,000 m2) of gathering spaces with the Grand Ballroom, used for the Oscars Governors Ball. The chef Wolfgang Puck operates his regional headquarters out of the complex. The center also includes television broadcast facilities that in 2004 included the studios for the daily talk show On Air With Ryan Seacrest.
The 637-room Renaissance Hollywood Hotel is also part of the site. The LACMTA Red Line’s Hollywood/Highland subway station is beneath the structure . Also, Metro Local lines 163, 212, 217, 656 and Metro Rapid 780 serve Hollywood & Highland.
