LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 3.0

[RuFFy]

LA Live's website seems to be up and running now.. www.lalive.com.

[jlrobe]

Originally Posted by k3d

I may be wrong about my first impression of the width of the "alley". I can't find the floorplan but I'm pretty sure there will be restaurants and / or retail along the "alley". Again, it looks narrow but it may just be a lack of details to give a good sense of scale. When I was looking at the webcam again there was a semi parked at the entrance and it seemed you might be able to fit 5 side by side in the alley. Also there is a lot of scaffolding taking up space and some of that architecture may be overhang. I am curious where tha bowling alley will be. I also wonder if there will be retail on any of the upper floors and if there will be a lot of escalators and elevators.

The screens on the towers do look a little small compared to the towers. I'm hoping the big section that wraps around the espn building on the right is a large screen. I was also disappointed to hear what looked like exterior LCD screens in the renders on Fig/Olympic were not LCD but just billboards.

I saw a more detailed image of the site plans and drove by there on friday night. All is well. It looks like it will be all good. Now we need LA central and Jardin to come online and we will be set.

[petescafe]

Time for a photo update of the Medallion site, and points beyond.

The site is now dressed in full Green construction fence mode.
Monday through Saturday the removal of soil continues.
STARTING AT 7 IN THE MORNING! :babyeat:
I love progress.
I just have to get use to wearing earplugs.

But before this, back in the good old parking lot days, it was car alarms at 7 in the morning.

You get use to it.

We start, high in the sky overlooking "the Pit".




Now street level.




The hole they're digging is pretty deep.





On the right are pallets with recycled bricks ready to be shipped out.




Future vacancy signs have gone up on all the corners of the site.




What's with the wall?




It looks permanent.




Had to try and get a shot of the checkered floor of a former building foundation.
Looks like this slab will require some extra work to get rid of it.




Traveling a bit further down Main St we have the former Linda Lea looking strangely different.



All the empty space will be glass. The stairs will lead to a roof top lounge.
It's going to look very unique and stand out very nicely on that block.
Here's a closer look at the inside.




Across the street I noticed that the M. J. Higgins Art Gallery is now gone.



All this will be torn down for the new Police Parking garage.





Speaking of the Police. Here's a series of shots of the New Police Headquarters. The first shot is taken from 2nd and Main.



2nd and Spring.



1st and Main.



That's all for now.

[RAlossi]

Damn, petescafe, you can't beat that view of the construction site! Gotta love it!

Notice that the LAPD HQ building is topped out and the top level is the beginning of the diagonal structure that will connect the north and south buildings.

[Affrojuice]

i was on the corner of 8th and Los Angeles this evening buying two suits, which by the way I got an amazing price on, and was standing around on the street waiting for my suits to finish getting tailored. The transition that street corner took, from 5pm to 6pm was incredible. At 5pm the street was full of pedestrian activity, with the nice looking suit businesses open to the street, the atmosphere was very pleasant. Between 5 and 6 the stores started closing and pulling the garage doors down in front of there entrances. By 6pm the street was empty and felt desolate because all of the stores disappeared behind the very uninviting, rusty, tagged metal garage doors. It made me realize how much potential that corner, and potentially the whole fashion district has. The corner of 8th and Los Angeles could quickly become very nice, once there is enough 24hr pedestrian traffic and the businesses feel it is safe enough to get rid of the garage doors and let the shop windows be open to the street at night. I always feel like there is not enough retail downtown, but I realized today there is a lot nice retail already downtown that I hope will become utilized into the future pedestrian neighborhoods.

[RAlossi]

^ I'm hoping that the business community will respond with increased hours now that Santee Village and Santee Court are open... and the Chapman Building is in the area too.

[Affrojuice]

rico you are the man...i like your blog angelenic a lot. You and fridayinla are doing a great job. keep it up.

[alikaalex]

Originally Posted by Affrojuice

By 6pm the street was empty and felt desolate because all of the stores disappeared behind the very uninviting, rusty, tagged metal garage doors. ... The corner of 8th and Los Angeles could quickly become very nice, once there is enough 24hr pedestrian traffic and the businesses feel it is safe enough to get rid of the garage doors and let the shop windows be open to the street at night.

One other solution could be the use of security grilles instead of shutters. They roll down similar to shutters, but allow one to see through them into a lighted display window, making the street look much less abandoned than unattractive shutters.

[colemonkee]

Great update, petescafe! Glad to see the Medallion moving ahead.

[RAlossi]

Block 8 Little Tokyo update:

The first level of underground parking at the San Pedro Apts. is complete, and work is beginning on the second. The construction crane is up and the mountain of dirt is still there.

I can't remember offhand if someone posted about this a few days ago before the forums went to crap. I'm too lazy to look, so no complaining

All original photos on flickr here.














And last, but not least, the Manufacturers Bank Building at the Cultural Center Plaza is being remodeled. More on that here.

[LAofAnaheim]

Here's a photo update of South Park, Financial District, and the Historic Core:

717 Ninth, on the 6th floor:


Concerto, looks like the 1st level of the underground garage is complete on the Figueroa tower:


Coffee Bean at Market Lofts is open for business:


UPS Store, looks ready to open soon:


The South Group:


Loft Appeal on the corner of 9th & Hill:


Mode, opening next week per the downtownnews:


The owners of Mode with their 2nd downtown location (per the downtownnews):


Union Lofts (my favorite renovated bldg):


7-11 @ the Mandel:


Wokcano on 7th & Flower:




Taxis near the Ralphs (giving a NY vibe):


Can somebody explain to me why this parcel of land on Flower between 7th & 8th sits empty?

[Echo Park]

Yeah that parcel has been bugging me for ages. Would be nice if someone snatched it up and put a mixed use tower there to compliment 7th+fig. Don't know if the Flower side can be helped tho, its across the street from the urban fortress aka Macys building.

[RAlossi]

Originally Posted by Echo Park

Yeah that parcel has been bugging me for ages. Would be nice if someone snatched it up and put a mixed use tower there to compliment 7th+fig. Don't know if the Flower side can be helped tho, its across the street from the urban fortress aka Macys building.

You're right about that. The ass ends of quite a few parking structures are on Flower. There's some good potential with the block between 8th and 9th, though, with a couple restaurants opening, 717 W. Ninth Tower, the Orchid Hotel and the Ritz Milner.

[Easy]

Can somebody explain to me why this parcel of land on Flower between 7th & 8th sits empty?

I wonder about that every time that I see it. I can understand that no one has offered the owner the money he thinks it's worth, but a parking lot is better than a vacant lot.

[JDRCRASH]

Drat.....I wanted to finish the countown to the opening of the Nokia Theatre.
Nonetheless!, I was impressed with the ribbon cutting!
LOL, I want those fat red scissors


Hmm, here are some interesting facts that I have found in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune:

By 2050, at least 31 million people are going to live in the L.A. basin(not including Antelope and Apple Valley as well as Ventura county).

Also...by 2015, Los Angeles WILL be 8,000,000 people!
Don't believe me, read the fine print(BTW,that includes you ECHO PARK):

NATION & WORLD

[U]NEWS IN BRIEF[/U

Rising seas will threaten 21 cities
BANKOK, Thailand-
Cities around the world, including Los Angeles, are facing the danger of rising seas and other disasters related to climate change.
Of the 33 cities predicted to have at least 8 million people by 2015, at least 21 are highly vulnerable, says the Worldwatch Institute.
They include Dhaka, Bangladesh; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Shanghai and Tianjin in China; Alexandria and Cairo in Egypt; Mumbai and Kolkata in India; Jakarta, Indonesia; Tokyo and Osaka-Kobe in Japan; Lagos, Nigeria; Karachi, Pakistan; Bangkok, Thailand, and New York and Los Angeles in the United States, according to studies by the United Nations and others.
More than one-tenth of the world's population, or 643 million people, live in low-lying areas at risk from climate change, say U.S. and European experts.
_______

[edluva]

Originally Posted by LongBeachUrbanist

A place is well-designed if it respects the pedestrian and makes them happy to be there. With this criteria, the Grove mostly succeeds. Hopefully, L.A. Live will be able to pull it off as well.

the bev center is a great case study too. it has benches for pedestrians and, even better, it's got a roof. it's also three times denser than the grove. for that the bev center mostly succeeds. hopefully the la live will be able to pull that off as well.

[Easy]

JDR, It's cool, but you have some of your figures mixed up. LA only has 4 million people now and it won't double in population in 6 years. And generally when people use the term "LA Basin" they mean that part of LA that's south of the SF Valley.

[RAlossi]

Found this project by Venice Investments (developers of the Packard Lofts and LA Lofts [formerly Hope Lofts]). It's at 15th and Broadway and currently houses the company's headquarters in a small brick building.



Not too much more info, but what I found is at angelenic here.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by jlrobe

Tourists, AND residents could party and see shows in 4 different neighorhoods, without having to drive between them. I can envision the red line increasing its service and becoming the next thing the national media talks about.

All I know is that ppl like this need their head examined if they continue to put up with the mess described by this writer. They live too far away, they add to and get trapped in too much traffic, & they show what a joke it is when a town lives & dies based on cars, cars, cars, fwys, fwys, fwys.


The Dixie Chicks, Eagles And That L.A. Traffic

Posted By:Jane Wells,
cnbc.com

I was lucky enough to get two tickets to the opening night of the new Nokia Theater in downtown Los Angeles. Who was playing? The Eagles AND The Dixie Chicks. Full disclosure: I got the tickets for free.

The theater is very nice. The stage is huge, the seats are comfortable, the multi-media experience is great. There are cupholders so that you can bring in food and drink. And, for the first time ever, a theater has been built which has enough stalls in the women's room to quickly accommodate a crowd at intermission. This, folks, is a revolutionary step forward. On the other hand, the place needs more concession stands. Both bands were in top form. It really was two great concerts in one. I had a blast. Sort of.

Here’s why I don’t go out much. First, going anywhere in LA at night has gone from tedious to Dickensian. Second, too many fans act like they’re in their own homes and not in a public place.

Let me start with the first. I drove to the Nokia Theater downtown from Thousand Oaks. It’s a 45 mile drive. It took two hours. On a Thursday evening. When there were no accidents. Just too many people. I saw something I’d never seen before. You know those freeway signs which tell you how many minutes until you reach a certain location? On this trip I saw one saying, "Downtown, 100 minutes.” I have never seen the minute-wait get into the triple digits.

Now, for the second issue. Call me silly, but I go to concerts to enjoy the MUSIC. The Dixie Chicks hit the stage around 8:40 PM, and they were fantastic. But for the next 45 minutes, during more than half their entire set, people were still arriving, crawling all over everyone to take their seats. Natalie Maines finally said, “Only in Los Angeles do you spend $300 for a ticket and then arrive late.”

The couple in front of me arrived during the fifth song (mind you, people don’t wait for a song to end to start shuffling down the row to their seats…). After finally sitting down, they launched into a long conversation, ignoring the band. It was as if they were in a bar and this was open mike night.

After the Dixie Chicks came the Eagles. I still can’t believe how great it was. But in classic Los Angeles fashion, people started streaming out a half hour before the show ends: a half hour! Why? TO BEAT THE TRAFFIC! You see, in LA, it’s all about beating the traffic. It’s why people leave during the sixth inning at Dodger Games, even back when those games were close (I can’t remember that far back). Beating the traffic is seen as the ultimate achievement---as if the traffic in Los Angeles can ever be beaten!

My question, why would you spend all that money to go to an event, only to spend less time at the event than you do in the car?

I figured I was probably never going to see the Eagles and the Dixie Chicks together again, so I had no intention of leaving. Good move. The Eagles gave two encores, and the very final song made staying especially worthwhile. Don Henley came out and stood under a single spotlight and put his heart into “Desperado.” That was worth the extra “100 minutes” to downtown.

[SD_Phil]

I'm not taking her seriously. The entire tone of the article is high and mighty 'me me me first.' I've never liked articles whose sole purpose is to bash on entire groups of people in one fell swoop.