Unveiled: Los Angeles Beautification Team Celebrates New HQ

Local leaders and the community gathered to celebrate the opening of the Los Angeles Beautification Team's new headquarters Thursday evening.

The building at 1741 N. Cherokee Avenue will also serve as a place for the organization to teach educational workshops and provide vocational training for at-risk youth.

The organization, founded in Hollywood in 1992, helps improve neighborhoods, school campuses and business districts by planting trees, removing graffiti, painting murals, cleaning up trash and more.

The building's design was donated by Larry Schlossberg of Gruen Associates. He was inspired by 20th century architect Rudolph Schindler who has created landmark homes in the area. 

One environmentally-friendly element of the site includes a water conservation system that will direct rainwater to the water table and not to the storm drain. The main building has no gutters or downspouts so that all the rainwater will be directed to a bioswale built into the landscaping.

The project, which broke ground in April 2008, was made possible thanks to funding from a capital campaign, and a combination of government and private grants.

Sharyn Romano, CEO of the Los Angeles Beautification Team, told those gathered that she was proud to do her part to serve the community.

"Everyone in this community has worked so hard to bring Hollywood back, and I just chose one thing I wanted to do, and that was clean," Romano said.

She told Patch that she was feeling a great joy at the grand opening to unveil the building to the community. She had seen the building take shape each day from the organization's former headquarters across the street.

"Sometimes it was torturous, but being able to come here everyday and feel the energy of building it—we did all the finishing touches—that was very satisfying, Romano said.

The evening also marked a name-change for the organization. Once known as the Hollywood Beautification Team, the new name reflects the growth of the organization and the community it serves.