L.A. Live is an entertainment complex in the South Park District of

Downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) contains the central business district of Los Angeles. In addition, it contains a diverse residential area of some 85,000 people, and covers . A 2013 study found that the district is home to over 500,000 jobs. It is a ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. It is adjacent to the

Crypto.com Arena Crypto.com Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Downtown Los Angeles. Adjacent to the L.A. Live development, it is located next to the Los Angeles Convention Center complex along Figueroa Street. The arena opened on October 17, 1999; it w ...

and

Los Angeles Convention Center The Los Angeles Convention Center is a convention center in the southwest section of downtown Los Angeles. It hosts multiple annual conventions and has often been used as a filming location in TV shows and movies. History The convention center, ...

. L.A. Live was developed by

Anschutz Entertainment Group The Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), also known as AEG Worldwide, is an American global sporting and music entertainment presenter and a subsidiary of The Anschutz Corporation. It is the world's largest owner of sports teams and sports even ...

(AEG),

Wachovia Wachovia was a diversified financial services company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before its acquisition by Wells Fargo and Company in 2008, Wachovia was the fourth-largest bank holding company in the United States, based on total asset ...

Corp, Azteca Corp, investment firm MacFarlane Partners, and with tax deferments paid by Los Angeles taxpayers. It cost approximately to build. The architectural firm responsible for the master plan and phase two buildings was Baltimore-based

RTKL Associates RTKL was a global architecture, planning and design firm. The firm was founded in 1946 by Archibald Rogers and Francis Taliaferro in Rogers’ grandmother’s basement in Annapolis and grew to be one of the largest architectural firms in the world ...

. With the adjoining LA Convention Center and Crypto.com Arena, LA Live will be part of the "Downtown Sports Park" cluster for the upcoming 2028 Olympic Games being held in Los Angeles. LA Live will host boxing events at Microsoft Theater.

Timeline

Initial construction at L.A. Live began in September 2005. The first phase opened in October 2007 and contained Microsoft Theatre, the Xbox Plaza, a retail plaza, as well as an underground parking garage, holding a fraction of the project's expected total of 4,000 parking spaces. LA live was initially decried by architects as not being openly pleasing to the neighborhood streets and a metal looking fortress when it opened. The architect Nate Cherry of

CallisonRTKL CallisonRTKL is a global architecture, planning and design firm formed from the October 2015 merger of Callison and RTKL Associates, both of which were subsidiaries of Arcadis NV. Chief Executive Officers (Effective Date) * Kim Heartwell (26 Ja ...

, the designer of the project wanted to create narrow walkways to lure visitors into the plaza from the street, thus creating alleyways lined with restaurant, similar to a European style public plaza. LA Live brought in a renaissance to the neighborhood surrounding Crypto.com Arena and billions in economic activity to downtown Los Angeles. Thru the years, the success of LA LIVE! has created mirrored versions or renovations of districts adjacent to sports venues, including TEXAS LIVE in

Arlington, Texas Arlington is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Tarrant County. It forms part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan statistical area, and is a principal city of the metropolis and region ...

KEMBA Live! KEMBA Live! (originally the PromoWest Pavilion) is a multi-purpose concert venue located in the Arena District of Columbus, Ohio. Opening in 2001, the venues operates year-round with indoor and outdoor facilities: the Indoor Music Hall and Outdo ...

at the

Arena District The Arena District is a mixed-use planned development and neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio. The site was developed through a partnership between Nationwide Realty Investors, Ltd. (a subsidiary of Nationwide), the City of Columbus and private inves ...

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, an ...

Kansas City Live! The Kansas City Power & Light District, or simply the Power & Light District, KCP&L or the P&L, is a dining, shopping, office and entertainment district in Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, United States, developed by The Cordish Companies of Balt ...

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the List of United States cities by populat ...

Titletown District The Titletown District, also known as the Titletown Entertainment District or simply Titletown, is a mixed-use development located on of land adjacent to Lambeau Field in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin. The district, which opened in 2017, was developed ...

Green Bay, Wisconsin Green Bay is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The county seat of Brown County, it is at the head of Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It is above sea le ...

Patriot Place Patriot Place is an open-air shopping center owned by The Kraft Group built around Gillette Stadium, the home of the New England Patriots and New England Revolution. It is located in Foxborough, Massachusetts. The first phase opened in fall ...

outside of

Gillette Stadium Gillette Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts, which is southwest of downtown Boston. It serves as the home stadium and administrative offices for both the New England Patriots of the National Foo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

, and the

American Dream Meadowlands American Dream is a retail and entertainment complex in the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States. The first and second of four opening stages occurred on October 25, 2019, and on December 5, 2019. The remainin ...

near Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey.

Explored expansion

In 2020, AEG proposed a $1.2-billion public-private partnership that would add as much as 700,000 square feet to the convention center, which AEG operates, and a $700-million, 861-room addition to the JW Marriott hotel.Plans were approved in 2022. Three years of construction is scheduled. For a time prior to the return of the

Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Greater Los Angeles, Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC Wes ...

in 2016, plans were being developed for the NFL to

return Return may refer to: In business, economics, and finance * Return on investment (ROI), the financial gain after an expense. * Rate of return, the financial term for the profit or loss derived from an investment * Tax return, a blank document or t ...

to Los Angeles with a new stadium on the campus, to be called Farmers Field. The Los Angeles City Council approved a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) with AEG in a 12–0 vote on August 9, 2011. AEG abandoned the project in March 2015, after the three most likely NFL teams all proposed their own stadium plans in the event they were to relocate to Los Angeles.

Features

L.A. Live has of ballrooms, bars, concert

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

s, restaurants, movie theaters, and a 54-story hotel and condominium tower on a site. The complex became home to AEG and the

Herbalife Herbalife Nutrition Ltd., also called Herbalife International, Inc. (with a U.S. subsidiary called Herbalife International of America) or simply Herbalife, is a global multi-level marketing (MLM) corporation that develops and sells dietary su ...

headquarters in 2008.

Event Deck

The west outdoor parking garage, top level roof is used as event space, called "Event Deck". The 90,000 square foot roof has no obstruction pilers and can easily accommodate large scale tents and platforms. It was used for the

63rd Annual Grammy Awards The 63rd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held in and around the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles on March 14, 2021. It recognized the best recordings, compositions, and artists of the eligibility year, running from September 1, 201 ...

the

73rd Primetime Emmy Awards The 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards honored the best in American prime time television programming from June 1, 2020, until May 31, 2021, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The award ceremony was held live on September 19, 2021, ...

during the COVID-19 pandemic as they could accommodate an indoor and outdoor setting for safety protocol. Also used for the world premiers of the

Hunger Games ''The Hunger Games'' is a series of young adult dystopian novels written by American author Suzanne Collins. The first three novels are part of a trilogy following teenage protagonist Katniss Everdeen, and the fourth book is a prequel set 6 ...

franchise and other Hollywood afterparties. The event space can hold up to 5,000 guests.

Xbox Plaza

Xbox Plaza (formally Microsoft Square) is a open-air plaza that serves as the central meeting place for L.A. Live. The Square provides a broadcast venue featuring giant LED screens as well as a red carpet site for special events. Xbox Plaza hosted the first WWE SummerSlam Axxess event on the weekend beginning August 22, 2009, leading up to the 2009

SummerSlam SummerSlam is a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event, produced annually since 1988 by WWE, the world's largest professional wrestling promotion. Dubbed "The Biggest Party of the Summer", it is considered WWE's secon ...

event on August 23 at Staples Center. On June 24, 2010, the Square was the location for the official red carpet premiere of '' The Twilight Saga: Eclipse'' among other world premieres. The

2022 Major League Baseball All-Star Game The 2022 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was the 92nd Major League Baseball All-Star Game, held between the American League (AL) and the National League (NL) of Major League Baseball (MLB). The game was hosted by the Los Angeles Dodgers at ...

red carpet was held at the plaza.

Microsoft Theater and The Novo

Microsoft Theater The Microsoft Theater (formerly Nokia Theatre L.A. Live) is a music and theater venue in downtown Los Angeles, California, at L.A. Live. The theater auditorium seats 7,100 and holds one of the largest indoor stages in the United States. Histor ...

(previously the Nokia Theatre before June 2015) is a music and theatre venue seating 7,100, and The Novo (previous Club Nokia) is a smaller venue with a

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile tha ...

of 2,300 for live music and cultural events. The theatre has hosted the

ESPY Awards An ESPY Award (short for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award) is an accolade currently presented by the American broadcast television network ABC, and previously ESPN (as of the 2017 ESPY Awards the latter still airs them in the form ...

since 2008,

American Music Awards The American Music Awards (AMAs) is an annual American music awards show, generally held in the fall, created by Dick Clark in 1973 for ABC when the network's contract to air the Grammy Awards expired, and currently produced by Dick Clark Pro ...

Primetime Emmys The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime E ...

, Radio Disney Awards,

Billboard Music Awards The ''Billboard'' Music Awards are honors given out annually by ''Billboard'', a publication covering the music business and a music popularity chart. The ''Billboard'' Music Awards show has been held annually since 1990, with the exception of t ...

and other leading ceremonies in the entertainment business., The theater is so commonly used, on March 11, 2008, the

Academy of Television Arts and Sciences The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), also colloquially known as the Television Academy, is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the television industry in the United States. It is a 501(c)(6) non-prof ...

announced with AEG that the venue would be the home to the

Primetime Emmy Awards The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...

ceremony from 2008 onward. The venue has also hosted the finale of the seventh, eighth and ninth seasons of ''

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to ...

''. The

2010 MTV Video Music Awards The 2010 MTV Video Music Awards took place on September 12, 2010 at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, honoring the best music videos from the previous year. Chelsea Handler hosted the event, the first woman in sixteen years – since the 1994 MT ...

were held at Microsoft Theater on September 12, 2010. The first scheduled event held at Microsoft Theatre was a concert featuring

The Eagles The Eagles are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1971. With five number-one singles and six number-one albums, six Grammy Awards and five American Music Awards, the Eagles were one of the most successful musical acts of the 1970s ...

and

The Dixie Chicks The Chicks (previously known as Dixie Chicks) are an American country music band from Dallas, Texas. Since 1995, the band has consisted of Natalie Maines (lead vocals, guitar) and sisters Martie Maguire (vocals, fiddle, mandolin, guitar) and E ...

on October 18, 2007. Recording artist

John Mayer John Clayton Mayer ( ; born October 16, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Born and raised in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Mayer attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but left and moved to Atlanta in 1997 wit ...

's live album '' Where the Light Is: John Mayer Live in Los Angeles'' was recorded at the Microsoft Theatre.

Grammy Museum

On May 8, 2007, it was announced that the

National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences The Recording Academy (formally the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; abbreviated NARAS) is an American learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is famous for its Grammy Aw ...

would establish a museum dedicated to the history of the

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

. The museum opened in December 2008 for the Grammy Awards 50th anniversary. It consists of four floors with historical music artifacts. It has featured a number of exhibits, including the

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

Songwriter Exhibit, which was open from October 4, 2010, to March 31, 2011. Embedded on the sidewalks at the LA Live streets are bronze disks, similar to the

Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Calif ...

, honoring each year's top winners, Record of the Year, Best New Artist, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year. LA Live Ritz Carlton Hotel & Residences tower

LA Live Ritz Carlton Hotel & Residences tower

Hotels and residences

The centerpiece of the district is a 54-story, 1,001-room two-hotel hybrid tower, constructed above the parking lot directly north of the Crypto.com Arena. Designed by

Gensler Gensler is a global design and architecture firm founded in San Francisco, California, in 1965. In 2021, Gensler generated $1.235 billion in revenue, the most of any architecture firm in the U.S. As of 2021, Gensler operated offices in 49 citi ...

and built by

Webcor Builders Webcor is a commercial construction contractor with headquarters in San Francisco, California. The firm also has regional offices in Alameda, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, and Hawaii, and is among the largest builders in California with clien ...

, the skyscraper contains both an 879-room JW Marriott hotel on floors 3–21 and a 123-room Ritz-Carlton hotel on floors 22–26. Floors 27–52 hold 224 ''Residences at the Ritz Carlton'' condominiums. The tower's architectural design evolves from a "geometric pattern of glittering, blue-tinted glass." Thirty-four different types of glass were installed to create the uniquely patterned facade. Groundbreaking for the tower took place in June 2007. The project was completed in the first quarter of 2010. In July 2014, Marriott Hotels opened a second two-hotel hybrid tower with 393 rooms just north across Olympic Boulevard with a Marriott Courtyard and a Residence Inn.

ESPN broadcasting studios

The second phase of development included a ESPN broadcasting studio, as well as an

ESPN Zone ESPN Zone was a theme restaurant and entertainment center chain in the United States that included arcades, TV studios, and radio studios, operated by the Disney Regional Entertainment subsidiary of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts using the Disne ...

restaurant built on the corner of Figueroa Street and Chick Hearn Court. In an effort to expand coverage of West Coast sports,

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

began broadcasting the 1 AM ET (10 PM PT) edition of

SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is a daily sports news television program that serves as the flagship program and brand of American cable and satellite television network ESPN. The show covers various sports teams and athletes from around the world and o ...

from the studio on April 6, 2009. The ESPN Zone restaurant closed in July 2013 and was replaced by Tom's Urban 24,

Smashburger Smashburger IP Holder LLC, doing business as Smashburger, (stylized as SmasHBURGER), is an American fast-casual hamburger restaurant chain founded in Denver, Colorado. As of 2022, it has more than 227 corporate and franchise-owned restaurants in ...

and Live Basil Pizza restaurants.

Regal Cinemas

The $100 million, , Regal Entertainment Group movie complex opened in 2009 and includes 14 screens and 3,772 seats.Richard Verrier Hollywood opening for downtown cinema AEG hopes its $100-million Regal movie complex will capture lucrative premiers October 24, 2009, B1 Los Angeles Times It includes a three-story

art-deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

-style atrium and an 806-seat theater called the "Regal Premiere House" intended for "lucrative" premieres. The theater complex became the West Coast

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the ...

location for Regal, at the time of its opening, the largest theater chain in the United States. The

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the " King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over ...

film '' This Is It'' was the opening film at the theater.

Restaurants

L.A. Live is also host to a set of mid- to upper-scale dining including Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, Katsuya, Lawry's, Rock'N Fish, Rosa Mexicana, Cleo,

Wolfgang Puck Wolfgang Johannes Puck (born July 8, 1949) is an Austrian-American chef and restaurateur. Early life and career Puck was born in Sankt Veit an der Glan, Austria. He learned cooking from his mother, who was a pastry chef. He took the surname ...

Bar & Grill, and Yard House.

Construction gallery

File:LA Live Construction May 2007.jpg, L.A. Live during Construction File:LA LiveTower05.jpg, The hotel on Olympic Blvd. under construction in November 2008 File:RitzCarlton.jpg, The completed Ritz Carlton Residences at LA Live File:Only the pics from L.A 336.jpg, Regal Theater and Marriott under construction summer of 2008.

References

External links

L.A. Live official website

Microsoft Theater website

Smarter Places: RTKL architects

Los Angeles Sports Council

Staples Center official website
{{Downtown Los Angeles, state=collapsed Downtown Los Angeles Entertainment districts in California Music venues in Los Angeles Sports venues in Los Angeles

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, i ...

Condo hotels in the United States Apartment buildings in Los Angeles Residential skyscrapers in Los Angeles Tourist attractions in Los Angeles JW Marriott Hotels The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company RTKL Associates buildings 2000s architecture in the United States Skyscraper hotels in Los Angeles