Beverly Center to get makeover

No formal announcement, but Architect's Newspaper (h/t Curbed LA) is reporting that the badly needed overhaul will be handled by the Italian design firm Studio Fuksas. What the overhaul will include is a big question. The Beverly Center, which is owned by the Taubman Group, the nation's largest shopping center operator, is an eight-story, well, thing, that's way too big for its L.A./West Hollywood neighborhood (part of the property contains a cluster of oil wells that made the place hard to design). It's also very worn - the same 80s look that didn't look all that great in the 80s. And yet, how do you fix it? Studio Fuksas has worked on shopping malls all over the world, including the MyZeil center in Frankfurt, Germany (photo). As you can see, it's pretty wild stuff - "ethereal lightness" is how Architect's Newspaper describes the firm's work.

Worth noting is a big makeover that just got underway at the Glendale Galleria, which opened just a few years earlier than the Beverly Center. This was the heyday for U.S. shopping center construction, but that's a long time ago and many of these properties are in need of serious renovations.