LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 3.0

[pesto]

Vibiana Place is very different now than when proposed. As I recall the area east of there was mostly parking lots and derelicts. Now there has been a fair amount of building heading toward Little Tokyo. A new high rise and some reasonable mid-rises with greenery around them could create a second South Park in what used to the "DT Skid Row".

My biggest complaint is too much concrete and too little green.

[LosAngelesBeauty]

Originally Posted by LAofAnaheim

Here's a good article I found this morning about the true high cost of adding parking to projects and how it deters from favorable infill development.

http://www.labusinessjournal.com/news/2010/apr/26/putting-parking-its-place/

Yeah, goes to show you how much parking requirements (due to a lack of a good public transit system in place) has really been the main reason why LA never became a truly great city.

With narrow sidewalks, a lack of people on the streets, giant billboards geared toward drivers, and lackluster architecture, LA really has a lot of catching up to do. However, with Measure R in place, I have confidence that rail line by rail line open, Angelenos will finally start to understand what life could be like without living in a disgusting car oriented city.

Then policy will start to evolve and possibly cater more toward people (we see this happening already in Downtown LA with the Planning Dept requiring wider sidewalks and trees with new developments).

[LosAngelesBeauty]

I remember Gilmore stated that he was going to make it into a parking lot and that he would do everything he could to make the parking lot "pretty" because we all know (including Gilmore) that most parking lots are recipes for creating dead zones.

[JDRCRASH]

I don't think podium garages like that of 717 Ninth are gonna help at all, especially when buildings like that are only a block or two close from transit.

[BrandonJXN]

From Curbed

Hollywood may be down a supergraphic, but now downtown is up one. This Coke graphic was spotted going up on the new Gensler-designed Ritz/Carlton and Marriott in downtown today. It's not clear if the graphic is covering any hotel room windows, but back on our great January tour of the project, we learned that the area underneath that advertisement is at least partially designed for meeting rooms or other non-hotel room use. Nevertheless, good time to start making some popcorn--if we're lucky another nasty catfight between City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and City Councilwoman Jan Perry will break out. UPDATE*: As a commenter points out, that thing on the bottom left looks like a Verizon advertisement.

[JDRCRASH]

^ From what i've heard so far, the billboard won't cover any hotel rooms.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

Regarding this photo of the Medallion, is it possible to build residential on top of this parking structure? I was out in Reston, VA, this weekend and it is a pretty decent suburban town center but lacking the residential density to make it a real vibrant area. Building on top of parking structures like this can solve that.

I am not a structural engineer, so I don't know if the parking structure could support that weight.

An innovative engineer and architect wouldn't need the parking structure to support the weight.

I was at UCLA recently and was impressed by the sight of the California NanoSystems Institute building, which was built over a parking structure. Of the UC campuses (excluding UCSF), UCLA is the smallest campus in area and the most dense and built out, so, something innovative had to be done. The result was this:









Parking didn't have to be eliminated for the construction of this building, and the new building didn't take up much more land area. Brilliant!

All photos by me. Excuse the non-downtown LA subject.

[BrandonJXN]

That looks crazy.

[pesto]

sopas: interesting! I had no idea this was there and I was just in the Ralph's on LeConte 2 weeks ago! A link to the architects.

http://www.arcspace.com/architects/vinoly/cnsi/cnsi.html

[colemonkee]

That's Rafeal Vinoly. Dude's a pretty amazing architect. The courtyard looks like a M.C. Esher drawing.

Regarding the Coke sign on the Ritz downtown, I drove by it the other day, and the only word to describe it is: tacky. In this case, I agree wholeheartedly with Trutanich. There's no reason to slap supergraphics over a glass curtain wall. Over a solid wall, fine, but over glass, it just looks tacky. I hope they take it down. There's plenty of room for advertising in that complex. They don't need it over the facade of the hotel tower.

[sopas ej]

Oh yeah, Escher is a good comparison, I was thinking of Piranesi.

[DowntownCharlieBrown]

While searching online I ran across this advertisement. I had to laugh. I've seen this picture posted in this thread before, so I’m pretty sure it was one of the LA forumers that added the future towers to the picture.



Who knew adding future towers to your ad sells vacuums.

[Quixote]

^ I made that rendering.

[pesto]

I predict lengthy and complex litigation. Or you could waive the rights in exchange for a vaccuum cleaner.

[DistrictDirt]

Originally Posted by DowntownCharlieBrown

Who knew adding future towers to your ad sells vacuums.

That's hilarious. Something similar happened in DC last year. A new cheesesteak place opened, and used a Metro map on the back of their flyer to illustrate their location. Only problem: instead of using the official Metro map, they used a "2030 fantasy map" that a friend of mine made for his urban planning blog. Hilarity ensued.

[BrandonJXN]

Originally Posted by Westsidelife

^ I made that rendering.

Looks like you have a case on your hands.

[LosAngelesBeauty]

Originally Posted by colemonkee

Regarding the Coke sign on the Ritz downtown, I drove by it the other day, and the only word to describe it is: tacky. In this case, I agree wholeheartedly with Trutanich. There's no reason to slap supergraphics over a glass curtain wall. Over a solid wall, fine, but over glass, it just looks tacky. I hope they take it down. There's plenty of room for advertising in that complex. They don't need it over the facade of the hotel tower.

I agree, that sign is tacky tacky. AEG, a company I love for building LA Live, should seriously reconsider putting ugly — banners on the actual tower.

[pesto]

There are actually othe words: trashy, vulgar, 3rd world, commercial —, sold-out. But this is all what is implicit in a "sign district". Some people here have been defending unfettered commercialism consistently for years and wishing for more and bigger billboards. How is this any worse than Target adds or SONY or anyone else?

We asked for Times Sq. and now we're going to get it.

[RuFFy]

So, what happened to the 8,000 foot screen? Don't get me wrong. I'm not sure that pasting a video screen on the side of the building would be any better.. but it might be an improvement.. or not.. or.. : /

http://blogdowntown.com/2009/01/3943-aegs-partnership-with-panasonic-to-bring

[JDRCRASH]

I admit, i'd like to see some creativity from AEG instead of putting up simple banners.