BURBANK APPROVES BOB HOPE CENTER.

Byline: Katie Cooper Staff Writer

BURBANK - In a new edition to Burbank's Media District, the City Council on Tuesday approved an office, theater and museum complex on property owned by Bob Hope that will pay tribute to the legendary entertainer.

The project, known as the Bob Hope Center, will feature 103,500 square feet of office space as well as a live theater venue and museum that will house the comedian's memorabilia.

Located at the corner of Alameda and Olive avenues and across the street from NBC Studios, where Hope broadcast his specials for the network, the complex is expected to play off nicely against the other entertainment-related projects planned for the area, city officials said.

The first phase of the Hope project is expected to cost at least $26 million.

Family members expect to launch a fund-raising campaign for the museum and theater complex.

The move to develop the land, long owned by Hope, is somewhat bittersweet. His daughter, Linda, who has been the driving force behind the project, said Tuesday that family members have been looking for a way to memorialize her ailing 97-year-old father.

``We wanted a permanent remembrance of him in Burbank ... and near NBC seemed a very appropriate setting,'' she said.

A spokesman for the family said Hope had ``rooms and rooms'' of memorabilia from his years in television and film, and from his worldwide appearances before members of the armed forces.

Family members had also hoped to project scenes of the comedian's movies on a globelike architectural feature on the exterior of the office building.

But the City Council was cool to that proposal, citing concerns that it would distract drivers at a busy intersection.