Last year, the CBS Television City went on the market. While there hasn’t been a sale, the massive property is now officially a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.
The City Council decided Tuesday to designate the iconic 25-acre campus a landmark, according to Curbed.
The status means the city would have to sign off on any redevelopment or adaptive reuse of the mid-century Fairfax District building.
CBS Television Studio was designed by celebrated architecture firm Pereira & Luckman in the International Style. It opened in 1952 at the corner of Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue as a state-of-the-art studio unlike any other existing at the time.
It was the first large-scale facility in the country meant to meet the needs of modern mass-produced television programming, according to Curbed.
It was home to numerous iconic television shows of the 20th century, including “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “The Carol Burnett Show,” and “The Price is Right.” The latter is still filmed at the studio. CBS also leases studio time out to other networks, including HBO for “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
The L.A. Conservancy asked the city to landmark the studio in December, a few months after the complex was put on the market. At the time it was listed, experts said the complex could fetch around $900 million. Historical-Cultural status could bring that price down, because it would restrict significant redevelopment. [Curbed] – Dennis Lynch