LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 4.0

[pesto]

Originally Posted by bobcat

Apparently the stadium/events facility is generating interest in South Park.


L.A. football stadium plan has firms scoping out the neighborhood

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-stadium-downtown-20110327,0,3375777.story?page=1

This man is saying that CVS and Walgreen's would not look DT without a football stadium? There are several already within a half mile of LA Live. And there are hundreds in SF and NY (including Duane Reade's) with no football stadium.

[dktshb]

Originally Posted by colemonkee

More good news from the Downtown News:


Image Source: Downtown News

A Win-Win on Winston
Long-Vacant Building Ready to Be Reborn as Apartments

by Ryan Vaillancourt, Staff Writer
Thursday, March 24, 2011

When Legacy Real Estate Holdings bought an abandoned seven-story building at Los Angeles and Winston streets in 2001, it was hard to imagine it full of residents, ground-floor retail and a jazz club.

The structure is perched on a corner that, while bustling with Toy District commerce by day, is marred after sunset by the kind of Skid Row woes that prevent many would-be denizens from checking out Downtown.

Ten years later, Legacy’s vision for the old Jeffries Banknote Company building is no longer far-fetched. The company broke ground on a $3.5 million-$5 million residential conversion of the 1927 structure, to be dubbed The Winston, in January and is on pace to open it as 43 apartments in summer 2012, said Stephan Schmidt, development director and spokesman for the firm.

Read the rest of the article here.

Great news! I am glad they are going to remove the paint and expose the original brick work and masonry.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by StethJeff

My worry though is that it'll look nothing like that in reality and will be incredibly tacky. Our fine city is certainly known for tackiness so I wouldn't be surprised.

stethjeff, tacky in the context of lighting on a very $$ new highrise devlpt----assuming it would be even tacky, or "tacky"----wouldn't be the worst sin associated with the city. There are things more embarrassing that that, & it goes back almost to the beginning....

Originally Posted by bobcat

Apparently the stadium/events facility is generating interest in South Park.

L.A. football stadium plan has firms scoping out the neighborhood

that article also included.....

Here, along South Olive Street near West 11th Street, you'll find a smattering of merchants, including old printing shops and mannequin stores, but also a lot of abandoned storefronts guarded by locked metal gates.

^ scenes like this still dominate the hood & have been turning off more ppl than anything related to inadequate rail transit or too much new lighting around LA Live.

When I'm in DT & keep running into such , I really have to laugh when I recall some ppl claiming several yrs ago that enough had been done to turn around the hood. And so the city should spend more time worrying about south central or east LA, or something like that.

that's why I sometimes wanna ask those ppl who complain about DT becoming too touristy or too bright & busy----including all the ppl who've been complaining about the new stadium: do you keep your eyes closed when you're in LA?!!

Chain stores prospecting for new downtown locations include CVS and Walgreens drugstores and various large clothing stores, said Moore, who doesn't represent AEG. Sprouts Farmers Market and Fresh & Easy, two grocery chains, are also scanning the area.

as pesto mentioned, there already are drug stores like walgreens in the hood, so one of the sentences in the article doesn't really imply anything that's new or exciting. As for the second sentence, it unfortunately doesn't include the one store that alot more ppl would be excited to hear about: Trader Joe's!

[Illithid Dude]

Finally! The L.A. Times actually writes a positive article about Downtown for once. I found it interesting that they kept making mentions that Downtown will, eventually, be like Michigan Avenue or Union Square, two very high end areas. Also, the article kept alluding that high-end retail is thinking about making a move downtown. I don't want to bring back that conversation about high end retail and downtown, but it does seem like that is what is going to happen. Lastly, I had no idea that H&M and Urban Outfitters were looking for a space Downtown! Even if those stores aren't the nicest or greatest in the world, the fact that they are looking Downtown shows that Downtown is now becoming attractive not only in that 'gritty' way, but in a conventional way as well.

[StethJeff]

With respect to the stadium choice, not only did it seem painfully obvious that the
Gensler building was better than the other two proposals, I already assumed that the choice was made a long time ago. All of the renders with the "Farmer's Field" branding were superimposed on the Gensler concepts when the naming rights were announced. Were any images ever released that showed the branding on the other two building proposals?

[DtlaCuriousity]

Originally Posted by colemonkee

More good news from the Downtown News:


Image Source: Downtown News

A Win-Win on Winston
Long-Vacant Building Ready to Be Reborn as Apartments

by Ryan Vaillancourt, Staff Writer
Thursday, March 24, 2011

When Legacy Real Estate Holdings bought an abandoned seven-story building at Los Angeles and Winston streets in 2001, it was hard to imagine it full of residents, ground-floor retail and a jazz club.

The structure is perched on a corner that, while bustling with Toy District commerce by day, is marred after sunset by the kind of Skid Row woes that prevent many would-be denizens from checking out Downtown.

Ten years later, Legacy’s vision for the old Jeffries Banknote Company building is no longer far-fetched. The company broke ground on a $3.5 million-$5 million residential conversion of the 1927 structure, to be dubbed The Winston, in January and is on pace to open it as 43 apartments in summer 2012, said Stephan Schmidt, development director and spokesman for the firm.

Read the rest of the article here.

Wow, this is extremely interesting. I'm not sure the homeless population can be displaced, but the trajectory of the development and demographic change is sure pushing towards that. I'm thinking that Skid Row will present a very large area of conflict and resistance.

[Just-In-Cali]

If I have to see that same Charlie Chaplin blurb along side the consumate "I found a pic of a parking lot with a powerline over it" ...posted here by citywatch one more time...I swear to god...
Your arguement has been made, noted, debated at length, and acknowledged as an issue. What else must we as a forum do to get you to move to something else?

Anyway, Gensler obviously had the best design, it was the most organically fit for the site overall. My only concern is that the design we saw in the rendering and the final product may be quite different, and lets hope that some half assed value engineered hulk isnt what pops up.

The lighting scheme as it is represented for Wilshire Grand would be quite spectacular. Id like to see what a final render or even animation would give us. Kinda exciting.

[JDRCRASH]

Maybe it's just me, but I think we are in serious need of new pics of downtown.

[edluva]

regarding justincali's mention of gensler's stadium, am i the only one who already sees it as a "half-assed value engineered hulk"?

what an underwhelming waste of money. it seems to be a theme in this city - to spend millions of dollars on some painfully mediocre design.

have you seen any of the stadiums going up around the world? why do developers in los angeles have such a difficult time finding talented architects?

are even our most wealthy angelenos that tasteless and crass? it's not like la lacks the money or anything.

[LAofAnaheim]

Originally Posted by DtlaCuriousity

Wow, this is extremely interesting. I'm not sure the homeless population can be displaced, but the trajectory of the development and demographic change is sure pushing towards that. I'm thinking that Skid Row will present a very large area of conflict and resistance.

Homeless will just move 1 block south and/or east. Done. It took us a decade to have them move from Spring street to Los Angeles street (2 blocks). It's not like they're leaving overnight.

[Illithid Dude]

Originally Posted by edluva

regarding justincali's mention of gensler's stadium, am i the only one who already sees it as a "half-assed value engineered hulk"?

what an underwhelming waste of money. it seems to be a theme in this city - to spend millions of dollars on some painfully mediocre design.

have you seen any of the stadiums going up around the world? why do developers in los angeles have such a difficult time finding talented architects?

are even our most wealthy angelenos that tasteless and crass? it's not like la lacks the money or anything.

Personally, I like the design of the stadium. I feel that something that was architecturally pronounced would go against the spirit of L.A. Live; big, glassy, and corporate. However, this does not mean that an ugly design is needed. I don't think the design is the best in the world, but it certainly isn't ugly or half-assed. Especially considering other football stadiums in the world, we lucked out. Chicago's is awful. So is Pittsburgh. Ours may not be the most exciting design in the world, but it is nice, clean, attractive, and modern.

[DtlaCuriousity]

Originally Posted by LAofAnaheim

Homeless will just move 1 block south and/or east. Done. It took us a decade to have them move from Spring street to Los Angeles street (2 blocks). It's not like they're leaving overnight.

Quite possibly, but that area is a service dependent ghetto. The service providers pretty much anchor the homeless population and of course present as politcal power in regards to advocacy.

Regarding the stadium, I'm a fan. But perhaps I'm just starved for the NFL and development that I'm not looking at this with a critical eye.

[DistrictDirt]

Random thought of the day: I was looking through DTLA Project Rundown 3.0 just for fun and was struck by how much development was occuring all at once back then. In this Colemonkee post from 5/2007 in particular, you can see photos from a ton of big projects all under construction at once:

• Hanover Tower
• Evo
• Luma
• LAPD Headquarters
• LA Live

...with even more waiting in the wings. It must have been exciting times to live here. Looking forward to being here for the next boom!

[LAofAnaheim]

Originally Posted by DistrictDirt

Random though of the day: I was looking through DTLA Project Rundown 3.0 just for fun and was struck by how much development was occuring all at once back then. In this Colemonkee post from 5/2007 in particular, you can see photos from a ton of big projects all under construction at once:

• Hanover Tower
• Evo
• Luma
• LAPD Headquarters
• LA Live

...with even more waiting in the wings. It must have been exciting times to live here. Looking forward to being here for the next boom!

I was living in the Skyline at 9th/Flower (and still am) back in '07 and there were 6 cranes I could see at one point - Watermarke, 717 Olympic, Concerto, Evo and 2 for JW Marriot. It was very exciting. Tomorrow I don't see a single crane from my balcony.

[JDRCRASH]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

Personally, I like the design of the stadium. I feel that something that was architecturally pronounced would go against the spirit of L.A. Live; big, glassy, and corporate. However, this does not mean that an ugly design is needed. I don't think the design is the best in the world, but it certainly isn't ugly or half-assed. Especially considering other football stadiums in the world, we lucked out. Chicago's is awful. So is Pittsburgh. Ours may not be the most exciting design in the world, but it is nice, clean, attractive, and modern.

Dude, he's clearly just trying to act trollish. Almost everyone here (and on blogdowntown and curbed) is on the same page when it comes to the Gensler design.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by Just-In-Cali

What else must we as a forum do to get you to move to something else?

just-in-cali, you rather I worry & complain about the design of something that hasn't even been built, may never be built, may be greatly altered before groundbreaking, or already is old news & was built yrs ago?!

I've noticed lots of ppl analyzing for wks & wks----& yrs & yrs----various proposed projs & new devlpt, often criticizing them every way imaginable. talk about not moving on to something else! I find it odd how such ppl will nitpick over things that aren't even really----meaning really, totally, absolutely, completely, 1000%----lousy, & then say nothing about the really aspects of the hood. that's why the LAT article on the impact of the new stadium was a change of pace.

btw, that pic is of a part of flower St near the convention ctr & proposed new stadium. it's a major artery in the hood. So what is shown is seen by thousands of ppl on any given day----inc ppl on the blue line. IOW, I didn't go out of my way to find such a vantage point. If that view of Flower St depicts something you'd rather not see in a forum on dtla, then you might just as well say you don't want to accept the specific nature of LA. Or you'd rather avoid the reality everyone needs to be aware of when discussing the good & bad points of the hood. It's an aspect of dt that the writer of the LAT article was pointing out too.

google streetview now allows ppl to show views of the hood that in the past couldn't have been easily captured & posted in threads like this. such pics give a better sense of aspects of the hood that, unless a person actually is on location at the time, are otherwise easily forgotten or overlooked. If ppl forget or overlook such details, then they're less likely to figure out the full impact of new projs & devlpt----including wilshire/grand & the proposed stadium.

[jamesinclair]

[/b]"Retailers we would normally only find on the Westside, New York and Beverly Hills are looking downtown, and they named the likelihood of a stadium as what brought them,

stores prospecting for new downtown locations include CVS and Walgreens
.

This made me spit out my hypothetical water.

[djlx2v2]

.

[colemonkee]

Originally Posted by DistrictDirt

Random thought of the day: I was looking through DTLA Project Rundown 3.0 just for fun and was struck by how much development was occuring all at once back then. In this Colemonkee post from 5/2007 in particular, you can see photos from a ton of big projects all under construction at once:

• Hanover Tower
• Evo
• Luma
• LAPD Headquarters
• LA Live

...with even more waiting in the wings. It must have been exciting times to live here. Looking forward to being here for the next boom!

I was living downtown in 2007, and despite the dearth of cranes in the skyline compared to then, I can say unequivocally that is far more exciting to live downtown now than 4 years ago. Construction and new development is cool and all, but downtown now is far better to live in. Which should say a lot about where downtown has come, and where it has to go.

[Allnatural85]

this was posted on abc7.com these is an article about the project and also gives a date of the hotel being done in 2015 and the bigger tower in 2017... worth a read =)