Archinect - News

Tesla’s EV-charging drive-in concept is under construction in Los Angeles

2024-01-17T18:44:00-05:00

Construction on Tesla's new Stantec-designed drive-in diner and electric vehicle charging concept is making progress in Los Angeles, as the local NBC station reports.

The project, which wasn’t approved until last April, is currently taking shape at 7001 W Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. Once it is completed, the retro-inspired dining space and rest area will offer drivers 32 total electric charging stations while serving classic American roadside fare wrapped in a two-story and 9,300-square-foot faux Streamline Moderne package.

Elon Musk developed the idea after thinking out loud on his Twitter account in 2018. Tesla says the station will operate on a 24-hour capacity once it opens later in the fall.

Previously on Archinect: Tesla's diner & drive-in theater supercharger station concept gets approved for West Hollywood

The development is significant as other fast food chains across the country are preparing their own EV charging station plans, according to Axios. A two-scre...

Tesla's diner & drive-in theater supercharger station concept gets approved for West Hollywood

2023-08-28T15:14:00-04:00

Tesla’s retro-inspired supercharging diner & drive-in movie theater concept will begin construction soon after the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety recently approved a planning permit for the company’s first Stantec-led design at 7001 Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, Teslarati reports.

The previously announced plan calls for a two-story, 9,300-square-foot structure with bars and an outdoor restaurant seating area. The structure will have two "drive-in" screens, which play movies of approximately 30 minutes in length, and capacity for 29 total charging stations. Tesla says it will operate the station on a 24-hour capacity.

CEO Elon Musk earlier this month described its design as "Grease meets The Jetsons with Supercharging" before promising its realization by the end of this year. Only technical drawings from the permitting application have been made official, leading some to offer their own speculative renderings via social media. A model of the structure was ...

Tesla is pushing to build a new drive-in diner, theatre, and supercharging station in Hollywood

2022-06-10T15:53:00-04:00

As reported by Electrek in May 2022, Tesla has moved its previously-announced plans for a supercharging station featuring a diner and drive-in movie theater from a vacant lot in the city of Santa Monica to the current location of a Shakey's Pizza franchise on 7001 Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood, CA.

The two-story structure will feature multiple bars and outdoor restaurant seating in addition to amphitheater-style seating overlooking its dual screens and field of 29 charging stations.

The movies are said to be approximately 30 minutes in length, roughly equal to the amount of time required by the Level 3 supercharging process, which is done with greater alacrity than the 8 to 20-hour at-home Level 1 and 2 versions. Permits are still waiting to be approved allowing the station (but not the theater) to operate 24 hours a day. Some have speculated it will carry a “retro” midcentury aesthetic reminiscent of the great Standard Oil stations documented by Ed Ruscha in the early 1960s....

Win a copy of “The Architecture of Cinematic Spaces”, a new book by Mehruss Jon Ahi and Armen Karaoghlanian!

2020-08-18T11:15:00-04:00

Craving more inspiring books about architectural film studies? Eager to learn more about the ever-intriguing relationship between architecture and film? Don't miss out on “The Architecture of Cinematic Spaces”, the latest volume by Mehruss Jon Ahi and Armen Karaoghlanian, the editors of online journal Interiors. Thanks to the book's publisher Intellect Books, Archinect is giving away five copies of the book to our readers!

This 96-page book takes an academic, graphic approach to film studies, combining critical essays with original architectural floor plan drawings detailing the production design of iconic 20th and 21st century films like “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”, “Rope”, “Le mépris”, “Playtime”, “2001: A Space Odyssey”, “Home Alone”, “Panic Room”, “A Single Man”, “Her”, and “Columbus”. Each chapter features an original floor plan of a key scene in each film.

Whether for scholarly research or just for fun, this page-turner inspires us to pay closer attention to the stories the...

Hard Rock Stadium in Miami rethinks the drive-in movie typology

2020-05-27T14:13:00-04:00

“It’s a fundamental human need to physically experience and celebrate events and experiences together, and we’re trying to provide options for everyone where they can be safely socially distant and socially present at the same time.”

The Covid-19 pandemic which continues to bring changes to our daily lives is causing one football franchise to rethink a classic from the 1950's: The Drive-In Movie Theater. The function of your standard cineplex today is not conducive to maintaining the various social distancing policies. However, the classic model of the Drive-In, popularized in the 40's-60's with the advent of the automobile allows for safe distancing by not sacrificing the desire to go see the latest films on the market. Hard Rock claims to be able to hold up to 230 cars with restroom facilities and concession stations available. An open air theater would also be available on the exterior of the stadium.

No date has yet been released as to when or if this proposal will materialize. Only a handful of renderings show what could be. Nevertheless, Hard Rock raises the question whether reverting to this classic style of movie-going experience can temporarily bring back some sense of normalcy to the everyday.

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Inside the famous Phnom Penh cinema that has become a living nightmare

2014-07-28T15:19:00-04:00

The Hemakcheat was once one of Cambodia’s most beloved cinemas and Meas Sopheap one of its star dancers. Today it is a notorious slum, and Meas one of hundreds who shelter there. [...] Hundreds of men, women and children shelter here, many on the ground-floor auditorium where they are shrouded in permanent darkness among hundreds of bats that screech and flap their wings constantly. [...] More waste falls from makeshift floors constructed above. The rotten stench of sewage is overpowering.

Welton Becket-designed Hollywood Cinerama Dome Marks 50 Years

2013-11-07T19:05:00-05:00

The only geodesic dome movie theater in the world, Becket’s design was inspired by Buckminster Fuller—and the nation’s midcentury obsession with landing on the moon. Built to resemble a giant spacecraft, the Dome boasted futuristic floating stairways—a first for any movie theater at the time. Simultaneously projected images using three 35mm cameras were so cutting-edge, the Dome’s own original projector—the Norelco Universal—would win a Technical Academy Award in 1963 [...].