LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 3.0

[DJM19]

They said that the "comb" facade would generally be too steep for birds to enjoy, and that there are other methods they could use like sonar to keep birds away.

[mdiederi]

Originally Posted by ThreeHundred

Off topic but you live in Culver City?

Yep, moved in November from near the top of the mountains in Topanga. Now I can walk to almost everything I need to do, instead of driving twenty miles round trip just to get gas. Can't wait til they open that expo station so I can ride that to downtown, it's just two blocks from me.[ /offtopic ]

[jamesinclair]

My one concern with the museum is that the exhibit space seems tiny, and it doesnt look like a building you could easily expand.

[StethJeff]

Originally Posted by DistrictDirt

Diller Scofidio + Renfro, via BlogDowntown

Grand Ave Park is in desperate need of road closures along Hill, Broadway, and Spring. It should be no surprise that the city known for having difficulty linking neighborhoods, buildings, communities together has the same trouble with just a single downtown urban park. Lame.

[pesto]

The exhibit space does seem small. I had thought that adding one more level would make sense. But it seems like they are going to focus on one artist at a time rather than on sheer quantity. Modern art is often hard to relate to and focusing on one artist, his influences, thinking and legacy could help people have a good experience.

Park: closing those streets would be great but not going to happen. The park is some improvement but it could have been a lot better.

[ladowntowner]

Originally Posted by StethJeff

Grand Ave Park is in desperate need of road closures along Hill, Broadway, and Spring. It should be no surprise that the city known for having difficulty linking neighborhoods, buildings, communities together has the same trouble with just a single downtown urban park. Lame.

^Closing that many adjacent north/south routes in/out of downtown proper would snarl rush-hour traffic even more than it already is through there, keeping in mind that that also affects surface public transportation movement, of which there is a significant volume on those streets past the park.

I'd vote for closing one or two of the dissecting streets between the Music Center and City Hall while slightly elevating the park over at least two others (in a creative and aesthetically appealing way) and dipping them underneath the park. At that grade, those streets could also provide direct access to the underground parking garages, thereby eliminating another major gripe a lot of us have about the park.

[ladowntowner]

Originally Posted by pesto

The exhibit space does seem small. I had thought that adding one more level would make sense. But it seems like they are going to focus on one artist at a time rather than on sheer quantity. Modern art is often hard to relate to and focusing on one artist, his influences, thinking and legacy could help people have a good experience.

^ They also want to encourage return visits. By having rotating/changing exhibits they can accomplish that rather than an, "Oh, the Broad Collection? Seen it!" kind of attitude.

[dktshb]

Originally Posted by jamesinclair

My one concern with the museum is that the exhibit space seems tiny, and it doesnt look like a building you could easily expand.

Its Broad's personal collection so it is being built to fit his art. My only concern is that I heard this Architectural firm has a reputation of the final product falling way short of the original renderings.

[bobcat]

For a museum meant to house one man's private art collection it's probably not all that small. Its exhibition space is, in fact, over 50% larger than MOCA's across the street. It's MOCA that needs a larger space.

[Quixote]

AEG, Farmers Insurance close to naming-rights deal for downtown NFL stadium
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-aeg-nfl-stadium-20110109,0,3037594.story

[mdiederi]

So it'll be called "Farmers Stadium" or "Farmers Events Center"?

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by bobcat

For a museum meant to house one man's private art collection it's probably not all that small. Its exhibition space is, in fact, over 50% larger than MOCA's across the street. It's MOCA that needs a larger space.

MOCA does have more than one location.

[bobcat]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

MOCA does have more than one location.

The problem with the Geffen Contemporary, aside from its separate location, is that it's not adequately climate controlled, a necessary requirement for the preservation of its permanent collection. MOCA should have its downtown exhibition spaces in a single facility built to modern museum standards.

[mdiederi]

The permanent collection is stored at Grand Ave. and the Geffen is for exhibitions only. MOCA has a $1 per year lease on the Geffen space through 2038, and an option for longer, so it's unlikely they are going to abandon it. The Geffen was MOCA's original temporary exhibition space while they waited for the Grand Ave. expansion three years later. Due to the popularity of the temporary space they decided to keep it.

"Exposing the Foundation of the Museum" by Chris Burden

photo by me.

[JDRCRASH]

Hey guys, can someone who has the time help me find the article I posted about that skyscraper proposed across the 110 freeway from USC?

It's supposed to rise on either on Grand or Hope, I think. It's buried in this thread somewhere.
_______________

***EDIT: Nevermind, I found it:***

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2009/11/developer_geoffrey_palmer_is_looking.php

[JDRCRASH]

Here's another one that wasn't added to page 1:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showpost.php?p=4291902&postcount=7136

[pesto]

Originally Posted by Westsidelife

AEG, Farmers Insurance close to naming-rights deal for downtown NFL stadium
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-aeg-nfl-stadium-20110109,0,3037594.story

Guess that seals it: The Rams playing at the Farm. What will the cheerleaders be called? The Cows? The "Embraceable Ewes" is a bit dated.

[DistrictDirt]

Originally Posted by pesto

I posted before that I believe this will be the largest concentration of "high" cultural institutions on 3 blocks anywhere in the world (2 major live theaters, opera, philharmonic and related music, two art galleries, school of arts, REDCAT performance and development spaces).

Sure, there will be a lot of cultural institutions in one place, but DC takes the cake by a long shot. A couple dozen musuems clustered together around the nation's largest civic park is pretty unbeatable- especially when all the museums are free.

[Kingofthehill]

[LosAngelesBeauty]

Originally Posted by DistrictDirt

Sure, there will be a lot of cultural institutions in one place, but DC takes the cake by a long shot. A couple dozen musuems clustered together around the nation's largest civic park is pretty unbeatable- especially when all the museums are free.

That's definitely true. DC is the museum capital of the US.

Nevertheless, it isn't a stretch to say that as the built environment on Grand Ave/Civic Center continues to evolve and mature into a coherent urban setting, it will contribute toward LA becoming the undisputed West Coast cultural hub as people easily access not only Grand Ave with its music, art, and theatre, but also the Natural History Museum/California Science Center, LACMA, and Hammer Museum with the opening of the Expo Line and Purple Line Extension.

In addition, one of the most culturally rich areas of LA, Pasadena, is already connected by Gold Line. Pasadena with the Norton Simon, Pacific Asia Museum, and Huntington Library will be icing on the cake for LA once the central city gets its act together. All that we need here in Pasadena is to get shuttle service to and from the Huntington Library to the Memorial Park Gold Line station (at least on the weekends) aaaaaaaaand of course the freakin' streetcar connecting the 4 distinct districts of Downtown Pasadena!