LATimes | W Hollywood penthouses: All the glitz, none of the grit |

For those who will live in the posh abodes, there’ll be no need ever to come in contact with the grungier realities of Hollywood.

They keep saying that Hollywood is being transformed.

They keep talking up new places to dwell and shop and dine.

On the boulevard, such change can seem spotty and slight: Tourists still look nonplused as they try to sync image and reality.

Stores along the Walk of Fame still skew toward glass water pipes, thigh-high vinyl boots and “World’s Greatest Cousin” souvenir statuettes. Just west of Vine, you still find the sign advertising girls: “Totally Nude, Totally Naakt, Totalement Nue, Benar-Benar Bugil.”

And in front of the W Hollywood, Lowell Taylor’s still doing what he’s done for 20 years, bending over a trash bin and reaching in deep for cans and bottles to toss into his shopping cart.

But that’s down low, zooming in. Go up high. Zoom out.

You see hills. You see the Hollywood sign. You see Capitol Records, curb to clouds.

Up high, life on the boulevard recedes.

You don’t just see construction cranes and developers’ dreams.

You see the new Hollywood as if it actually exists.

And maybe it does — as much as it needs to — for a certain clientele who can afford to have the outside world brought to them in their aeries.

That’s the target demographic for the penthouses of the Residences at the W Hollywood, priced from $1 million to … $45 million (with additional monthly homeowners dues of $1 per square foot).

Three years ago, when the Residences opened next door to the W Hotel, the economy was in the tank. A year in, only 10 of its 143 units had sold.

Now 85 have, and Ron Barnes, the director of sales and marketing, says the time is right to woo high-end buyers for the rooms at the top.

The luxury condo building is 15 stories high, which means something, for now anyway, in low-slung Hollywood.

[…]

castroburger | Absolutely @sillyselleb #longbeach #vodka #gay #pride #boys #ca #la #losangeles

PHOTO of the day | May 18, 2013 | A frame | Hollywood Hills

PHOTO of the day | May 16, 2013 | Chris Brown’s neighbors in the Hollywood Hills are complaining that the images in street art-style murals that he had painted outside his home are too scary

LA sunset

MacArthur Park | Westlake Theatre and pigeons (I was there yesterday)

Penthouse pool | W Hollywood

Getty Museum | Did you know that Saul Bass, whose birthday is commemorated with a Google Doodle today, designed the Getty’s logo?

“Elegant crisp white letters are beautifully held in balance and space within a blue field. The refinement of the Zen-like design is tempered by the offsetting of letters of differing sizes and the slicing away of edges.” —From “Saul Bass: A Life in Film and Design,” published in 2011

El Capitan | Hollywood | Los Angeles 1926

Guelaguetza Restaurant | Viva MEZCAL

PHOTO of the day | May 4, 2013 | Los Angeles

SPRINGS fire reaches Pacific Ocean

breakingnews | Cooler weather could contain California’s ferocious Springs Fire

NPR: Firefighters in Southern California are welcoming the latest weather forecast, as lower temperatures and higher humidity could help them control the Camarillo Springs Fire.

But the wildfire along the coast remains formidable: It has reportedly burned at least 43 square miles of land and property, nearly doubling in size Friday.

Photo: Standing on a rooftop, a man looks at the Springs fire’s approaching flames in California Friday. (David McNew/Getty Images)

castroburger | Enjoying my day off. #summer #la #losangeles #fire #hollywood #poolparty