Sunset Boulevard may get its own sphere, but don't call it ...

Sunset Boulevard might be getting its own orb-like structure that doubles as a billboard and broadcasting space, but the project is not trying to be the next Sphere. The Las Vegas venue has its ginormous globular eye on it.

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The proposed project was previously named “The Sphere,” but its legal spokesperson, Wayne Avrashow, told The Times his clients were contacted by representatives of Sphere in Las Vegas, “who informed us that there was the potential of conflict and confusion.”

Avrashow said his clients would, as a result, change the name of the project, though they haven’t yet landed on a new moniker.

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“We will do that internally and in consultation with the city,” Avrashow said.

In a statement to The Times, Sphere Entertainment said, “We will defend our products against any entity that purposefully tries to steal our IP and trade off of Sphere’s worldwide recognition.”

Similar names aside, Sphere is a dome-shaped structure and Vegas’ newest performance venue, and the West Hollywood project is spherical in shape. Sphere’s outer shell is an LED screen that displays images of a blinking eyeball, the Earth and artificial-intelligence-generated art by Refik Anadol.

The Las Vegas building reaches 366 feet high and 516 feet wide. The West Hollywood structure would be a great deal smaller, at 49 feet in diameter.

If approved, the new structure would sit between the Pendry West Hollywood and Best Western hotels on 8410 Sunset Blvd.

The project is still in its early stages. It’s undergoing review by the city of West Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard Arts & Advertising subcommittee.

Included in the proposed development are three billboards. Two would be placed on the surface of the circular structure, replacing two digital billboards currently at the site; the third is described as a “discreet vertical billboard.”

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According to the project documents, the orb would be built onto an existing apartment building whose entrance is on De Longpre Avenue, which runs parallel to Sunset Boulevard.

The proposed glass sphere would have “exterior pedestrian-oriented amenities and interior spaces built around broadcasting in real time.”

The structure itself would have three levels and hover eight feet above a privately owned public-oriented plaza at the ground level, with an existing basement level below.

It’s proposed that two of the three levels house a green room and rooms for broadcasting and podcasting.

The next steps for the project are further review by the Arts & Advertising subcommittee in January, where applicants are expected to provide information on topics including potential light pollution from the project and how the building would be maintained.

Then the project eventually would go before the city planning commission and City Council.

Vertical billboards near the Coliseum.

OAKLAND CITY COUNCIL//ARMY BASE | The contentious plan to erect billboards on the soon-to-be redeveloped Oakland Army Base is heading into its final stages. The council next week is set to approve a swap of a portion of the property later to be site of one of the 70-foot lighted billboards vehemently opposed by activists and residents of West Oakland.

The item was moved to the full council Tuesday by the Community and Economic Development Committee among a package of Army Base-related legislation. However, the billboard issue is likely to reignite opposition to the scoreboard-like structures critics call a form of urban blight.

Up to nine billboards, some featuring LED-emitting digital advertisements, will soon dot the landscape leading to through the former Army base to the Bay Bridge. Tuesday’s decision included a swap of land on 6.5 acres of property with the state Department of Transportation. The city, however, will maintain an easement on a portion of the land slated for one of the billboards. According to city officials, Oakland stands to gain between $500,000 and $1 million in annual revenue from its portion of the ad sales for the billboards.

Although city staff was transparent in its report of the land deal eventually paving the way for one billboard Tuesday, the labeling of the agenda item was not entirely clear to some activists. “Why can’t they just say this is about the billboard?” asked Oakland resident Margaret Gordon, a former Port of Oakland commissioner. Gordon told the committee if West Oakland’s struggling neighborhoods are good enough for the large-scale billboards; why not put some in more upscale parts of the city like the Montclair District?

“I, myself, have very mixed feelings,” said Council President Pat Kernighan of the billboards previously approved by the council last June. “But we already jumped off that cliff.” Councilmember Libby Schaaf called the billboards “a painful and difficult issue,” but reiterated a belief the area already partially aglow at night by neighboring lights at the Port can absorb the rotating commercial signs.

Both Schaaf and Councimember Larry Reid say they prefer billboard similar to the vertical signage seen by highway motorist along with the Oakland Coliseum. “I like Billboards,” said Reid, “if they’re done like the ones at the Coliseum.”

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