LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 4.0

[pesto]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Well, my point was to convey how what's been considered LA's "downtown area" has actually expanded in area over time. That intersection of 7th and Figueroa was actually a quiet residential section on the edge of town in 1900. In the 1920s and 1930s, LA's main commercial, business and financial districts were still mainly east of this intersection; much of south Figueroa at this point apparently was all warehouses and car dealerships, so, there wouldn't have been much pedestrian activity in this area back then anyway. When you think about it, the car dealerships and old warehouse-type buildings that exist today further south on Figueroa are vestiges of what used to exist along more of Figueroa.

If you look at old photos of what used to exist in the area of where the Convention Center is now, you'd see that there were lots of old 2-story brick apartment buildings that used to exist there, mixed in among warehouses. People lived in that area, but back then, it wasn't considered downtown; they wouldn't have been considered downtown residents. I remember when the Convention Center expansion was built--- whole blocks and streets were obliterated to build the expansion, as well as Staples Center.

It's funny to me that some people now are considering the USC area as part of downtown.

It's natural for "downtown" or "urban core" areas to expand and LA is going through that process now. I usually say "greater downtown" for the area that includes Westlake, Ktown, University Park, east to the River, and much of Silverlake and Echo Park. What distinguishes it in my mind is that it has historic architecture (including many mid-rises), a tradition of streetlife and walking. Most importantly people actually want to live there, which means that there will be an organic process of creating greater density. The current mixed uses will allow this change to occur more rapidly than other areas of town.

Eventually LA's "urban core" will be huge. Not really downtown, but part of a greater urban area.

[sopas ej]

I can't argue with you there; in fact I agree with you.

It's still interesting to me what people consider downtown and not; I consider Chinatown to be part of downtown LA, but I had a co-worker who didn't consider it to be part of downtown. She was a Vietnamese girl close to my age, who came here as a South Vietnamese refugee with her family in the 1970s when she was a little girl. She lived in Chinatown until her mid-teens, when she and her family moved to West Covina. We were having a conversation, I don't remember exactly what I said, but she retorted with "Chinatown isn't part of downtown!" And I said "well what is it, then?" She said "It's just Chinatown." And then I asked her if she thought that Little Tokyo was part of downtown LA, and she actually said yes.

Go figure.

[LA/OCman]

The frustrating part of owning a loft on Broadway is the fact that there are so many building owners who are basically absentee owners. Case in point is the old May Company and Hamburger Dept Store buildings on 8th and Broadway adjacent to the Eastern Columbia. That beautiful structure at night becomes a homeless haven. I have counted as many as a dozen homeless people setting up camp under the overhanging fronting Broadway.

http://www.you-are-here.com/broadway/hamburger.html
http://www.you-are-here.com/downtown/may.html

This is directly across from the Broadway Bar and what will house Umami and Two Boots Pizza. The ACLU lawsuit against the city says the homeless can sleep there after 9:00 until 6:00. And guess what...there are no bathrooms on street. At least the owner washes down the sidewalk each morning.

[alki]

Original Post by Illithid Dude

Have you seen 500 Days of Summer? That entire movie is like a love letter to downtown Los Angeles. I mean, there are whole scenes that consists solely of the main character looking dreamily at the architecture and talking about how beautiful it is.

Right. Forgot about 500 Days. And Gordon-Levitt is the perfect actor to sell downtown LA. He's very likeable.

I was half listening to that song sung by CA in Burlesque so when I heard her say "downtown for dinner", I had to replay the song to make sure I heard right.

Its an amazing turnaround.

[alki]

Original Post by LosAngelesDreamin:

check out the beginning of this video.. its about the Los Angeles Streetcar BUT you can see how Los Angeles used to be such a pedestrian friendly city.. 0:19-0:23 shows how the streets of LA used to be like before the creation of the freeways and the car obsessed culture.

Thanks. Lots of pedestrians in that particular video but rarely do you see it in old tapes or photos of LA. In fact, there looks to be more pedestrian traffic now then back then.

I wished they hadn't rushed through the shots of new LA.....I haven't been back since 2002 so it would have been nice to see some of the new buildings that have gone up.

As for Portland, the streetcars have been a boon but its just one element that has contributed to that city's downtown development. The Pearl District they talk about in the video is between downtown and the train station. Its become a whole new neighborhood.....with refurbished commercial buildings turned into retail and lots of mid rise apts and condos. I bet per capita......Portland has more development downtown than any other city on the West coast from Vancouver, BC to San Diego......well maybe besides Vancouver.

When do they start construction on LA's streetcar?

[alki]

Original Post by sopas ej

What a horrible difference 75 years make. I wonder if the people in the 1926 photo would've been horrified back then had they known what that streetscape would look like in the early 21st century.

Look how much wider the sidewalks were back then........its speaks volumes about the changes that took place over the decades. There was a concerted effort in LA to get people off the sidewalks and out of transit, and into cars.

Agreed. The Atlantic Richfield Building was an LA treasure; it's a shame it was demolished.

Tearing down that bldg was a crime.

Another one was a building that was torn down in the 1980s before I moved to LA. It was in South Park. I don't remember its name. I think it was supposed to be the site of a new building for the gas company. It was an auditorium. It sat right on the street.......cool looking building.........was in mint condition. Could have been easily converted to another use. The LA Conservancy fought hard to save it but it still got torn down. And guess what, the development never happened. They tore down the building and turned it into a parking lot.

At least with Atlantic Richfield, something got built..........not that that is justification.

[alki]

I take it back......the video and the photos you all have posted during the past 24 hrs do show a lot of pedestrian traffic back in the day.

[tommaso]

Originally Posted by DistrictDirt

I agree that its pretty fugly. They can't all be winners though. At least its development.

This building isn't pretty, but it's going to serve a purpose and eventually, we may see further development on that block. Brick and glass probably would have been a better choice of materials, but I don't make the decisions here lol.

[tommaso]

Who's got a photo update of this?

[LosAngelesDreamin]

Originally Posted by alki

Original Post by LosAngelesDreamin:



Thanks. Lots of pedestrians in that particular video but rarely do you see it in old tapes or photos of LA. In fact, there looks to be more pedestrian traffic now then back then.

I wished they hadn't rushed through the shots of new LA.....I haven't been back since 2002 so it would have been nice to see some of the new buildings that have gone up.

As for Portland, the streetcars have been a boon but its just one element that has contributed to that city's downtown development. The Pearl District they talk about in the video is between downtown and the train station. Its become a whole new neighborhood.....with refurbished commercial buildings turned into retail and lots of mid rise apts and condos. I bet per capita......Portland has more development downtown than any other city on the West coast from Vancouver, BC to San Diego......well maybe besides Vancouver.

When do they start construction on LA's streetcar?

i believe it's suppose to start track installations late 2012 or early 2013?? according to the timeline on the golastreetcar website... opening day is planned for somewhere around 2014? right now i think they analyzing environmental impacts and doin preliminary engineering

[JDRCRASH]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

Have you seen 500 Days of Summer? That entire movie is like a love letter to downtown Los Angeles. I mean, there are whole scenes that consists solely of the main character looking dreamily at the architecture and talking about how beautiful it is.

Yeah that view of the Historic Core from the old Cal Plaza 3 site is just beautiful.

[DistrictDirt]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

I can't argue with you there; in fact I agree with you.

It's still interesting to me what people consider downtown and not; I consider Chinatown to be part of downtown LA, but I had a co-worker who didn't consider it to be part of downtown. She was a Vietnamese girl close to my age, who came here as a South Vietnamese refugee with her family in the 1970s when she was a little girl. She lived in Chinatown until her mid-teens, when she and her family moved to West Covina. We were having a conversation, I don't remember exactly what I said, but she retorted with "Chinatown isn't part of downtown!" And I said "well what is it, then?" She said "It's just Chinatown." And then I asked her if she thought that Little Tokyo was part of downtown LA, and she actually said yes.

Go figure.

I think the freeways form psychological boundaries to downtown. I consider Chinatown to be part of Downtown, but I can see how someone would consider anything north of the 101 to be not downtown. Crossing over the 110 from west the boundary is especially stark. You cross the trenched freeway and literally hit a wall of skyscrapers. It feels like you're crossing a moat and entering a citadel. It definitely feels like 'This is where Downtown proper begins", even if some might consider City West to be part of Downtown.

[RAlossi]

Originally Posted by DistrictDirt

I think the freeways form psychological boundaries to downtown. I consider Chinatown to be part of Downtown, but I can see how someone would consider anything north of the 101 to be not downtown.

Ah, true, but then Union Station wouldn't be "Downtown," and that most definitely is Downtown.

[RAlossi]

Originally Posted by tommaso

Who's got a photo update of this?

I walked past a couple days ago. I haven't seen people working on it in a couple weeks, though I don't live in the Historic Core anymore, so I probably just missed the workers. They're at about the second floor now.

[LAofAnaheim]

Originally Posted by DistrictDirt

I think the freeways form psychological boundaries to downtown. I consider Chinatown to be part of Downtown, but I can see how someone would consider anything north of the 101 to be not downtown. Crossing over the 110 from west the boundary is especially stark. You cross the trenched freeway and literally hit a wall of skyscrapers. It feels like you're crossing a moat and entering a citadel. It definitely feels like 'This is where Downtown proper begins", even if some might consider City West to be part of Downtown.

This is the most generally accepted boundary definition of downtown Los Angeles:

"Though Downtown is generally thought to be bounded by the Los Angeles River on the east in Lincoln Heights, the Hollywood (101) Freeway to the north, the Santa Monica (10) Freeway on the south and the Harbor (110) Freeway on the west, some sources, including the Los Angeles Downtown News and Los Angeles Times,[3] extend the area past the traditional boundary to include University Park and Exposition Park, encompassing the University of Southern California (USC) and Central City West neighborhoods."

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Los_Angeles

Personally...I don't believe in Expo Park, USC, or City West are downtown. I think the border does end at 110 and 10 freeways to the west and south. City West is kinda like our New Jersey to downtown LA's New York...that's how I encompass it. A lot of residential in City West, but most of them have to cross the freeway into downtown LA. Chinatown is Downtown LA as it is south of the LA river.

[Illithid Dude]

Originally Posted by RAlossi

I walked past a couple days ago. I haven't seen people working on it in a couple weeks, though I don't live in the Historic Core anymore, so I probably just missed the workers. They're at about the second floor now.

Oh no! Not another stalled building!

[RAlossi]

^ I don't think it's stalled. The developer has a good track record of completing affordable housing projects, which are funded by grants and government loans rather than mostly private capital. If it's stalled, it's probably a temporary construction-related issue.

[LosAngelesDreamin]

Originally Posted by DistrictDirt

I think the freeways form psychological boundaries to downtown. I consider Chinatown to be part of Downtown, but I can see how someone would consider anything north of the 101 to be not downtown. Crossing over the 110 from west the boundary is especially stark. You cross the trenched freeway and literally hit a wall of skyscrapers. It feels like you're crossing a moat and entering a citadel. It definitely feels like 'This is where Downtown proper begins", even if some might consider City West to be part of Downtown.

you know what would be pretty cool?? if the 110 frwy that cuts thru downtown had skyscrapers along the sides of it, it would create a giant skyscraper canyon look. like the streets of new york except on the freeway of los angeles.

[Der Blut]

Picture of the New Genesis progress from my place.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/707/img3010do.jpg/

[JDRCRASH]

Originally Posted by DistrictDirt

I think the freeways form psychological boundaries to downtown. I consider Chinatown to be part of Downtown, but I can see how someone would consider anything north of the 101 to be not downtown. Crossing over the 110 from west the boundary is especially stark. You cross the trenched freeway and literally hit a wall of skyscrapers. It feels like you're crossing a moat and entering a citadel. It definitely feels like 'This is where Downtown proper begins", even if some might consider City West to be part of Downtown.

Maybe when the Park 101 freeway cap project is built, Chinatown will feel more like a part of downtown.

Originally Posted by LosAngelesDreamin

you know what would be pretty cool?? if the 110 frwy that cuts thru downtown had skyscrapers along the sides of it, it would create a giant skyscraper canyon look. like the streets of new york except on the freeway of los angeles.

This already partially exists, mainly around the City West section of the 110.

Still, unless something like a freeway cap park is built, it would still act as a boundary; kind of like The Loop in Chicago.