As most of you will probably know, that building in the center of this photo is the Capitol Records building. It opened at 1750 Vine St, Hollywood in 1956. That freeway in the foreground is the Hollywood Freeway, which had been completed in 1952. But what I’d like to draw your attention to is that three-shrub planter in the diving strip. Here’s my question: Whose idea was it to put living plants in the middle of a freeway, and did they really think those poor shrubs would survive?
This is a 2024 satellite photo of that same stretch of the Hollywood Freeway and—surprise, surprise—there’s no sign of that planter.
LoL! That planter hardly seems worth it, does it? The building at right is The Knickerbocker Hotel and with all the rainy weather we had the past winter it’s had trouble keeping all the neon letters in its name lit. I’m assuming it has something to do with that, otherwise they need some new wiring. Currently it’s almost complete: T e Knickerbocker.
Spaced shrubbery planters were all along the Hollywood Freeway in the 1950s. They were removed as more robust directional barriers were installed. There was another example visible in the famous nighttime shot of the Sunset Boulevard offramp.
Wouldn’t you love to be driving down the Hollywood Fwy in that yellow Cadillac convertible with the top down? I’m trying to figure out its model year. Seems it could be 1950-55?
My friend at the Petersen Auto Museum ID’d it as “circa 1954.”