The AIDS landscape continues to shift with two high-profile address jumps. Both the Names Project, the nonprofit that manages the AIDS Memorial Quilt, and AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) recently announced headquarter hops.
Over the next few years the Names Project will haul its executive offices from the original 1987 San Francisco site at 310 Townsend Street to a to-be-determined address in Washington, DC. “There’s a strong emotional tie to the quilt’s birthplace,” said Andy Ilves, Names Project executive director. “But we’re now an international icon of the epidemic. Logistically, we belong in the nation’s capital. It’s the main magnet to visitors from all over the globe.” The search is on for somewhere to store the 42,000-panel, 53-ton quilt.
And after five years at 1313 North Vine Street (a former ABC-TV studio), APLA is ditching its spacious high-rent Hollywood digs and spreading its operations throughout LA. With the move, APLA hopes to save $500,000 a year and become more accessible to the 50 percent of its clients who live outside Tinseltown. The new zip codes will reflect the epidemic’s shift into minority communities.
