LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 4.0

[Chef Boyardee]

downtown la buildings walking? weird.

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[pesto]

Thanks for all the updates. Haven't been downtown in a while and now my appetite is whetted.

Tomasso/Illithid: agree that cities never pushed them; I should have said cities typically require more open air than they used to.

I do like the built to the sidewalk look, with setbacks starting at higher levels. It gives the architect more to think about and be creative with than the flat walls and linear verticals of recent years.

[DistrictDirt]

Originally Posted by RAlossi

I e-mailed the owners of CoffeeBar to ask what was up with their closing at 3pm or 6pm depending on the day... they said that they aren't doing too well and need to focus on the portion of their business that doesn't bleed money. It's strange, because you see so many people out there all day. On the other hand, people will sit there for hours and order a $4.00 cup of coffee. They must not be doing the volume they need to be doing, especially after an expensive build-out on the space. I'd recommend you support that business if you want to see it stay open.

I really think that if they stayed open a couple more hours, they would find that those are some of the busiest times of the day. I live right above CoffeeBar, and love the idea of being able to come home from work, grab an iced coffee, sit on the patio and people-watch. However, I never get home earlier than 6, so with their current hours that's not going to happen.

Really, all they need to do is look across the street at Syrup to see the brisk business they do in the evening hours.

[Hubris]

Originally Posted by RAlossi

The retail space at the northwest corner of 6th and Olive is leased, and I heard it's going to be retail. The former Famima space at 8th and Figueroa is under construction... looks to be a restaurant. Construction at the Main Mercantile Lofts (6th/Main) retail space, but I'm not sure if that's to redo the retail space to make it more attractive or if it's been leased. That was one of the ugliest street-level facades in Downtown for a while.

First it was residences. Then it was restaurants. And now we're finally seeing retail.

All this despite the recent recession. Looks like there's no turning back now.

[Hubris]

Originally Posted by BrighamYen

It will be a French restaurant

http://brighamyen.com/2011/04/29/planeta...own-la-first-location-outside-of-france/

I wish Roy's would do more with their Figueroa facing windows. Right now, the dark windows offer a barely visible view of the back of the bar.

Makes that section of Fig feel so lifeless. Hopefully, the new French restaurant will inspire Roy's to make some changes.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

Well, in the last 20 years downtown was a dump. Now it is not. I would think that the office vacancy rate would go down due to that singular fact. And concerning the pictures CityWatch posted: I don't like them too much. I mean, they are good indicators of the positive direction DT is going, but the best pictures of Downtown in a while? Hell naw. KotH has that covered much better.

illithid, your comments have some segues to other posts here & elsewhere. I recall westsidelife posting a set of pics of the mid wilshire area a few months ago & my saying that they made the city look good. I think kingofthehill also posted in that same thread about how he favored showing the grittier side of LA. Photos like the ones from westsidelife make me hopeful about LA, while pics like the ones from koth make me more skeptical about LA.

speaking of westsidelife, he mentioned the new pedestrian activity on Spring. I recall driving down that street yrs ago & being very disturbed by how vacant & sad it had become. A group of once first class bldgs had been rejected by businesses & others for yrs & yrs, & were being allowed to rot away. That sense of failure hovered over all of DT, causing it to be, as you say, a dump.

Now travel many yrs from that time to today. You can visit brigham's web site at brighamyen.com & see a blog entry about how some new businesses have just moved to DT. The blog says that can only grow in the right direction as the hood moves to the next level----including with the addition of more transit---& really starts to thrive.

One word of caution is what Ralossi found out about a new business on Spring St. I too would assume that the sight of customers lounging out front of a food type business indicated it was doing enough $$ per day to keep its owners happy. So looks can be deceiving. But it's also another reason why I think it's important that alot more apts & condos----& the residents (or potential new customers) that go with them----open in the immediate area ASAP.

[tommaso]

Originally Posted by citywatch

illithid, your comments have some segues to other posts here & elsewhere. I recall westsidelife posting a set of pics of the mid wilshire area a few months ago & my saying that they made the city look good. I think kingofthehill also posted in that same thread about how he favored showing the grittier side of LA. Photos like the ones from westsidelife make me hopeful about LA, while pics like the ones from koth make me more skeptical about LA.

speaking of westsidelife, he mentioned the new pedestrian activity on Spring. I recall driving down that street yrs ago & being very disturbed by how vacant & sad it had become. A group of once first class bldgs had been rejected by businesses & others for yrs & yrs, & were being allowed to rot away. That sense of failure hovered over all of DT, causing it to be, as you say, a dump.

Now travel many yrs from that time to today. You can visit brigham's web site at brighamyen.com & see a blog entry about how some new businesses have just moved to DT. The blog says that can only grow in the right direction as the hood moves to the next level----including with the addition of more transit---& really starts to thrive.

One word of caution is what Ralossi found out about a new business on Spring St. I too would assume that the sight of customers lounging out front of a food type business indicated it was doing enough $$ per day to keep its owners happy. So looks can be deceiving. But it's also another reason why I think it's important that alot more apts & condos----& the residents (or potential new customers) that go with them----open in the immediate area ASAP.

L.A. doesn't have a widespread thirst for urban high rise living like Toronto, Chicago and New York do. L.A. is just beginning to develop a taste of what that is. We will see if downtown construction picks up and lifts the local economy with it. The problem is not a lack of demand. Click on page one and somebody ask these developers what the status of the financing is for those projects. We're not talking a couple hundred units being added to the market. There are thousands of downtown units waiting to be built as soon as the financing is there.

[Illithid Dude]

Originally Posted by citywatch

illithid, your comments have some segues to other posts here & elsewhere. I recall westsidelife posting a set of pics of the mid wilshire area a few months ago & my saying that they made the city look good. I think kingofthehill also posted in that same thread about how he favored showing the grittier side of LA. Photos like the ones from westsidelife make me hopeful about LA, while pics like the ones from koth make me more skeptical about LA.

King of the Hill has this one photo thread, where he just perfectly shows the DT gentrification. It's the one were he went to District Dirt's condo. I always go back to it, just to see how far we have come.

[LA/OCman]

Originally Posted by RAlossi

BTW, Buzz Wine shop has opened up (the photo above reminded me). Huge selection, mostly mid-range and higher. Nice place!

Also, the Last Bookstore is open in the northwest corner space at 5th and Spring. Urbano at 6th and Hope now open. Chipotle open and always busy as hell. Green Hut Cafe open and seems to be doing good lunch business.

Perch (new incarnation of the Must) opens in July. I haven't seen anyone inside Industriel at 6th and Grand lately (formerly Carl's Jr.), but I wouldn't be surprised if they were near to opening. Cabbage Patch now open for dinner, but nobody knows about that yet so they don't seem to have too many customers at night.

I e-mailed the owners of CoffeeBar to ask what was up with their closing at 3pm or 6pm depending on the day... they said that they aren't doing too well and need to focus on the portion of their business that doesn't bleed money. It's strange, because you see so many people out there all day. On the other hand, people will sit there for hours and order a $4.00 cup of coffee. They must not be doing the volume they need to be doing, especially after an expensive build-out on the space. I'd recommend you support that business if you want to see it stay open.

The retail space at the northwest corner of 6th and Olive is leased, and I heard it's going to be retail. The former Famima space at 8th and Figueroa is under construction... looks to be a restaurant. Construction at the Main Mercantile Lofts (6th/Main) retail space, but I'm not sure if that's to redo the retail space to make it more attractive or if it's been leased. That was one of the ugliest street-level facades in Downtown for a while.

I went to the Coffeebar once and had a very expensive cup of coffee and a pastry that was very marginal. They really need to look add some plants and flowers on their patio. It is too sterile. With such a huge patio, they could really make it more of a "garden". Also, the landlord needs to clean the white sidewalks more often.

[RAlossi]

^^ Agreed on the sidewalk issue. Spring Street is filthy because of all the dogs and people that litter, and the Historic Core BID only has funding for x amount of street cleaning per month, which isn't enough. The property owners need to step up and make the sidewalks in front of their buildings look attractive.

[ChrisLA]

Originally Posted by LA/OCman

I went to the Coffeebar once and had a very expensive cup of coffee and a pastry that was very marginal. They really need to look add some plants and flowers on their patio. It is too sterile. With such a huge patio, they could really make it more of a "garden". Also, the landlord needs to clean the white sidewalks more often.

I've also visit the Coffeebar (twice) and thought their coffee well in my case cappuccino & latte was way to overpriced for the volume. Although I thought it was very good but I can also go over to Groundwork or Urth Cafe and get one just as good if not better and larger for a similar price. I can understand if they are making it european style but it should reflect a similar price when you can get the same across the street at Syrups Desserts and they stay open well past midnight.

It sounds as if I don't like Coffeebar but I really do, but they certainly need to make a few minor changes in order to survive. There is a lot of competition all up and down Spring Street.

[JRinSoCal]

Wow Downtown LA is looking more and more like the kinda place I want to just go and hang out for the day. Specially around Spring St.

[LosAngelesBeauty]

Originally Posted by Hubris

I wish Roy's would do more with their Figueroa facing windows. Right now, the dark windows offer a barely visible view of the back of the bar.

Makes that section of Fig feel so lifeless. Hopefully, the new French restaurant will inspire Roy's to make some changes.

I totally agree, the front part of Roy's is so uninviting because you can't see what's going on inside very well. I think the Planetalis opening up next door will really help at least generate some better synergy in this isolated part of DTLA. That parking lot across the street (8th/Fig) is really the biggest problem here.

[RAlossi]

Originally Posted by BrighamYen

That parking lot across the street (8th/Fig) is really the biggest problem here.

I saw some construction going on at the parking lot (8th Place and Figueroa) last week. It looked like interior demo. The office lights were on too. We MAY be getting that section of Figueroa reactivated soon! Fingers crossed.

Of course, I'd rather see the whole damn thing demolished and rebuilt, especially at ground level, but it's something.

[LosAngelesBeauty]

Originally Posted by RAlossi

I saw some construction going on at the parking lot (8th Place and Figueroa) last week. It looked like interior demo. The office lights were on too. We MAY be getting that section of Figueroa reactivated soon! Fingers crossed.

Of course, I'd rather see the whole damn thing demolished and rebuilt, especially at ground level, but it's something.

You mean that ugly ass white office building surrounded by tall uninviting black fencing???

[JDRCRASH]

SPRING STREET PARK GROUNDBREAKING IMMINENT

Friday, July 1, 2011, by Neal Broverman

This just missed Outdoors Week, but it's still quite noteworthy. The very ungreen Historic Core is getting an 0.7 acre park where a surface parking lot lives and work will start before the kids are back at school, reports Downtown tracker Brigham Yen: "Paul Tseng, the project manager for the park, informed me that groundbreaking for Spring Street Park is anticipated to begin in mid-to-late August with demo work." It'll only take a year to complete--click on the image to see a larger rendering of the green space.

Source: http://la.curbed.com/archives/2011/07/spring_street_park_groundbreaking.php

[Illithid Dude]

When you said '8th and Fig' I thought you meant '8th and Grand' and I started to hyperventilate. Then I looked closer and got sad. What is planned for 8th and Fig?

[Illithid Dude]

I just found what is being planned for 8th and Fig. If this is still what is being built, let me just say; OH FUCKING SHIT. And I mean that in the best possible way.


http://la.curbed.com/archives/2007/12/latest_8th_and.php

Guys... this could be huge.

[OneMetropolis]

^^^ that is really nice. Just the type of style that fits well in LA. too bad the post was from 2007, probably dead now.

[JDRCRASH]

I remember this project. For the sake of keeping our hopes up, i'll add it to page 1 anyway.

As i said earlier, most projects are simply waiting for a time in which they will be financially doable. Some (1027, Park Fifth, City House/The Olympic) unfortunately didn't make it.