LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 3.0

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by DowntownCharlieBrown

Downtown's Trinity Towers project (though there's only one tower by our count) is heading for a Planning Department hearing on May 21.

I'm not sure if talk about projs like that is similar to funneling the smell of cooking (maybe from an In 'n Out?) over to a roomful of ppl who haven't eaten in over a wk or two.

[DowntownCharlieBrown]

^That's a good analogy. But I'm starving and it's time they gave us some real food. Park Fifth breaking ground would be like having Lobster and Prime Rib dinner.

Originally Posted by citywatch

[/b]While a "large bank'' pulled out of a $97 million construction loan for the tower in January, the project will be completed on time next year, Meruelo told analysts on a March 31 conference call, without identifying the lender. The company is negotiating a new loan, he said.

I don't like the sound of that. I believe the Water Tower in Chicago (a super-tall) is basically stopping work until their new loan comes in which will be in June. I hope Meruelo is able to keep the current work pace while this is worked out. Times are getting rough.

[colemonkee]

^ Mmmmmm, surf and turf.

[Quixote]

May 12, 2008

Originally Posted by BEATSLIM

May 12, 2008

[Quixote]

May 12, 2008

Originally Posted by BEATSLIM

May 12, 2008

[Quixote]

May 12, 2008

Originally Posted by BEATSLIM

May 12, 2008

[Quixote]

May 12, 2008

Originally Posted by BEATSLIM

May 12, 2008

Just a quick picture from Staples

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by DowntownCharlieBrown

I believe the Water Tower in Chicago (a super-tall) is basically stopping work until their new loan comes in which will be in June. I hope Meruelo is able to keep the current work pace while this is worked out. Times are getting rough.

Good to get a heads up about new devlpt elsewhere. I admit that my own interest in & curiosity about new devlpt starts to drop off quickly the further away a proj is from DTLA. So I have only a very vague idea about what's been going on a few thousand miles to the east. However, I do know that the amt of new highrise construction in Chicago----or San fran with its currently tallest condo tower on the west coast----will make us in LA look like real bumblers if we can't at least reach the point of groundbreaking for a big new devlpt like parkfifth.

As for bad news from the midwest: on one hand, misery loves company. So if devlprs in chicago, & their projs already under construction, also are starting to get hit, then we know we're not the only ones. But on the other hand, if problems with financing are spreading far & wide, & can affect even a "super tall", what hope is there for a much smaller, wood framed proj like the Medallion? Worse of all, what does all this news mean for parkfifth?

April 23, 2008, DAVID ROEDER
[email protected]

SHANGRI-HA! Touche for Teng & Associates Inc., the class acts behind the Shangri-La hotel and condo tower under construction at 111 W. Wacker. Their top guys ducked my calls for days before I wrote in this space two weeks ago about how their project was financially pressed. Their reply was to tell friendlier media days later that, presto, they have found $300 million to finish construction on the 90-story building. Except that their own press release said they don't have the money yet.

The commitment is supposed to come from Beijing Construction Engineering Group Co. Ltd. It's not scheduled to close until June, Teng said. With Chinese stocks down 50 percent since October, it sounds as shaky as the other financing deals they've tried in the last three years.

Meanwhile, Teng still has to deal with a state investigation of its sales practices. In 2006, the hotel workers union Unite Here Local 1 asked the state to investigate its claim that Teng improperly was selling the hotel condos as securities, complete with projected returns. Hotel condos were all the rage in Chicago then, but most projects collapsed because prospective buyers saw them as developer financing schemes rather than real investments.

BTW, the tragic quake in china also will play a role in all this, since demand for construction material is going to be under greater pressure in the next few yrs. Or similar to the way that prices for wood & other building materials in the US started to soar after hurricane Katrina devastated new Orleans.

[Quixote]

May 12, 2008

Originally Posted by BEATSLIM

May 12, 2008

[Quixote]

^ How do you guys feel about trees being planted in the middle of the sidewalk in front of the ESPN building? I had a little debate with the forumers over at SSC about this. They're fine with it, but I say it somewhat disrupts pedestrian flow on what will be a busy stretch of Figueroa.


From SkyscraperCity, by ArchiTennis

[LA420]

^ I like the idea , gives you shade when walking in the hot summer sun with hundreds of people all over you and pushing when there is an event and the retail opens up. Plus it adds some density to the side walk. When the holidays come they can put lights on the trees and it would really make the area look nice. We need more trees in open large areas instead of big wide open artificial scape (concrete) .

[DJM19]

I think the trees in the middle are fine on that sidewalk, because its wide enough on both sides of the middle trees. Unlike other sidewalks where they have tried this.

I wouldnt have minded if they put a planter box around two trees in a row with flowers inbetween or something.

[colemonkee]

I don't mind the trees in the middle, though it might be better for heavy pedestrian traffic if they only installed one row of trees along the curb. But the advantage to having that second row of trees is the added shade and the reduction in temperature during peak sunlight hours (the "green" effect). It'll help offset the concrete island effect during the afternoons.

On another note, the green glass on 717 Ninth creates a nice contrast with the red granite of Promerica Tower and TCW Tower. Kinda like Christmas. I can't wait to see the glass color on Concerto.

[JDRCRASH]

Hey, did you guys watch that thing last night at around 10:40 PM on KTLA CW Prime news on Downtown?

It was #1 on a 4-part series called "METROmorphosis"; and it describes that in 2025, L.A. may very well look like Chicago and New York City more than people think. Apparantly, by then Los Angeles will have a pop. of 6.5 Million. And of course, the only way to accomadate those influx of residents is to build higher.

As you can imagine, Zev Yaroslavsky was begging for an interview with Emmett Miller. He said that the ONLY thing that makes Los Angeles popular is it's open space, and that despite its downsides, it makes it all the worthwhile to live there.

Emmett also interviewed the author of this book called "The City". He said that every major city has a so-called "DNA"to them; but that regardless if it's a bad thing or not to have a city of suburbs, IT IS WHAT IT IS.(is such cluelessness even possible?!)

Overall, I think it's crap. While I agree that every city has a certain feel to them, it is like having a kid with a disease. Are you going to let him go through pain? Or, are you going to lessen it? In the same way, Los Angeles is dealing with a disease epidemic of City Spread, and that means poorer handling of resources, traffic, pollution, and so on. Besides, look at Vegas and Miami; they're suburb cultures too, yet they're building High-Rises like there is no tomorrow, even while the demand for it is weakening there.

[JDRCRASH]

Originally Posted by edluva

hmmm, guess i never thought of that...
.....probably because it has absolutely nothing to do with my reply

Originally Posted by edluva

But what hopefully that means is that people will start to migrate en masse from the exurbs into Downtown LA, helping these stalled developments gain enough steam to finish up. But what will happen to those exurbs? Will they become slums or ghost towns?


^^pipe dreams.

and this has something to do with china, but much, much more to do with that thing mentioned in the news called...uh.....mmm.......uhh........oh yeah, the mortgage crisis.

I'm sorry if you can't see the link between my post and your quote post............I was trying to show you that just because the mortgage crisis is making it harder, it doesn't mean that people won't move closer to Dowtown. And if I were you, I would try to clarify what you mean concerning China; because I myself have done that all too often.

[LongBeachUrbanist]

Originally Posted by Westsidelife

^ How do you guys feel about trees being planted in the middle of the sidewalk in front of the ESPN building? I had a little debate with the forumers over at SSC about this. They're fine with it, but I say it somewhat disrupts pedestrian flow on what will be a busy stretch of Figueroa.

I think it's necessary, given how off-putting the building is at the street level. I think the trees will soften the look and hide the death star looking facade, with its air ducts and columns.

[LongBeachUrbanist]

Here is what it looks like without trees:



IMO, we have enough of this pedestrian-phobic design in DTLA.

With the trees, there will be a canopy of branches and leaves,
putting a little distance between the pedestrian and the
overhanging building. Also, the trees will add some much-
needed color contrast to an otherwise gray landscape.

I hope someone at City Hall will see the wisdom of continuing one
of these rows of trees north and south from there along Figueroa.

[Echo Park]

Yeah I agree with everyone here who says the trees are a welcome addition. I just dislike that setback on the ESPN building. It reminds me of the ground level retail in bunker hill buildings like the wells fargo building where its tucked away from the sidewalk making it a obscure to the pedestrian.

[JDRCRASH]

Originally Posted by Echo Park

Yeah I agree with everyone here who says the trees are a welcome addition. I just dislike that setback on the ESPN building. It reminds me of the ground level retail in bunker hill buildings like the wells fargo building where its tucked away from the sidewalk making it a obscure to the pedestrian.

In my opinion, it should be palm trees, just to give it more of that beautiful "California" style look.

[circuitfiend]

Re: the trees being installed in a double row pattern...

When WeHo was ripping apart Sta Mon Blvd. several years ago, the designers looked to other great cities to see what made their great boulevards so, well, great. They discovered that many had this particular design element, a double row of deciduous trees. This was incorporated into the final design of Sta Mon Blvd and it has helped make the Boulevard much more pedestrian friendly, instead of a mini freeway through town with scrawny palm trees on either side (WeHo ripped out the single row of palms, which provided very little shade, which had been planted earlier on both sides of the blvd). I'm happy to see Downtown LA is following this lead and incorporating more leafy trees into the mix.