Gehry Drops Plans to Relocate to Playa Vista

Environmentalists fighting to save the Ballona Wetlands claimed a victory Thursday when it was learned that famed architect Frank Gehry has dropped plans to move his design studio to the controversial Playa Vista project site.

Developers last year increased the luster of the Westside project by announcing that Gehry was relocating there and would help design buildings for its future construction phases.

But Maguire Partners, the firm that hired Gehry, confirmed that it has not yet closed escrow on the 114-acre site. And Playa Capital, the group that owns the site, declined to comment on reports that the property had been placed back on the market. Playa would say only that the status of the land “will become clear after the first of the year.”

Gehry, meantime, is said to be acquiring space in an existing empty building a few blocks from the Playa Vista marshlands and preparing to relocate his headquarters there by year’s end.

Word of that move has triggered a celebration by environmentalists, who for the past year have petitioned, picketed and--on one occasion--chained themselves to Gehry’s office door to protest his involvement.

This morning, a coalition of conservationists will march on Gehry’s current Cloverfield Boulevard headquarters in Santa Monica to deliver an oversized “thank you” card to the architect.

Environmental leaders said they now plan to invite Gehry to join them in a campaign to turn the parcel he was going to help develop into permanent open space.

State funding may soon be available for the purchase, according to environmentalists. They plan to meet next month with Gov. Gray Davis and state parks officials to press for their support in turning the Playa Vista space into parkland.

It would not be the first chunk of Playa Vista land to be designated permanent open space. On the western side of the site, developers have set aside 340 acres of land and salt marsh for wildlife habitat and agreed to sell another 193 acres to the state through the nonprofit Trust for Public Land, if a price can be agreed upon.

The site now being eyed by environmentalists is on the eastern side of Playa Vista at the former home of Hughes Aircraft Co.

“This is a great opportunity to get this coastal wetland,” said Marsha Hanscom, executive director of the Wetlands Action Network. “Would he rather have a park outside his office space or more traffic? Maybe Frank Gehry will go to the governor with us.”

Gehry, considered one of the world’s premier architects because of such work as the Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, could not be reached Thursday. But he has been under increasing public pressure to sever his ties with Playa Vista.

Eric Lloyd Wright, an architect and grandson of the legendary Frank Lloyd Wright, was among dozens of protesters who staged a 90-minute vigil outside Gehry’s office a year ago to beg that he quit Playa Vista.

Last fall, a longtime friend of Gehry was arrested and jailed after chaining herself to the door of his design studio to protest his Playa Vista involvement. Malibu environmentalist Valerie Sklarevsky’s relationship with Gehry had dated to 1969, when both worked for a Baltimore builder.

Later, Santa Monica activist Jerry Rubin collected thousands of signatures and messages on a 50-foot-long folded foam board, labeled “Earth Memo to Frank Gehry,” from passersby on the 3rd Street Promenade urging Gehry to boycott Playa Vista.

Rubin, of the Alliance for Survival, said today’s thank-you note will be a follow-up to the Earth Memo. “I may be hoping against hope, but I’d love Frank Gehry to join us and design a world-class nature refuge at Playa Vista ... ,” Rubin said.

The company hoping to develop new office buildings on Playa Vista’s eastern side off Centinela Avenue acknowledged that its planned $90-million land purchase has not been completed. But Maguire Partners still hopes to seal the deal, said spokeswoman Peggy Moretti.

The sluggish economy, coupled with a glut of Westside office space created by the dot-com business meltdown, has slowed the acquisition process, Moretti said. But Maguire Partners’ option to buy the property remains, and the firm faces no deadline for consummating the purchase, she said.

“Playa Capital can sell to a higher bidder,” Moretti said. However, Maguire Pardners “is committed to acquiring and developing the campus at Playa Vista,” she added.

Moretti described Gehry’s planned new headquarters in a three-decade-old building on nearby Beatrice Street as “Playa Vista adjacent.”

“He’s moving in the right direction,” she quipped.

But turning the Playa Vista property into a nature habitat may be more difficult than the environmentalists think, suggested Steve Sugarman of Playa Capital. Eleven old aircraft factory buildings and other structures--including the huge and historic “Spruce Goose” hangar--sit on the site.

“They’re talking about wildlife. But the birds that were there in the past were all the mechanical type,” Sugarman said.