[CPEO-BIF] Hughes Aircraft, Playa Vista, California

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

Howard Hughes' Airport To Be Revitalized

By Heather McMahon
Preservation Magazine Online
November 3, 2010

Howard Hughes' former aviation headquarters in Playa Vista, Calif., will 
be revitalized as an office "campus," thanks to an investment of more 
than $80 million.

Erected in 1941, the complex was part of Hughes' private airport, which 
housed the Hughes Aircraft Company, founded to further experiments in 
aviation technology. The 28-acre site includes a large, redwood hangar 
which once held Hughes' experiment in wooden aircraft, the Hercules 
(better known as the Spruce Goose). This seven-story hangar has been 
used over the years as a sound stage for film and television production 
for movies such as "The Aviator," "Titanic," and "Avatar."

The Ratkovich Company, a Los Angeles-based development firm known for 
its renovations of historic structures, recently purchased the property 
for $32.4 million. The property had been in ownership limbo for the last 
20 years, and the 11 extant buildings stand in a state of deterioration. 
The structures are "remarkably beautiful, yet they had been left to 
rot," says Clare De Briere, Ratkovich's executive vice president and 
chief operating officer.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2010/todays-news/howard-hughes-airport-to-be.html


For my 2006 report on the Playa Vista site, see
http://www.cpeo.org/pubs/PlayaVista.doc

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



_______________________________________________
Brownfields mailing list
Brownfields@lists.cpeo.org
http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/brownfields-cpeo.org