LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 4.0

[Illithid Dude]

Does anyone know what is happening with this renovation? It's under construction right now, but we have no updates on it or anything.





It's on 8th and Fig.

[BrandonJXN]

I guess they are constructing a new restaurant at The Watermarke. Went by there today and a black fence was up. Plus there was a few people working on the Trinity Auditorium. Take that however you want to.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by ThreeHundred

I guess they are constructing a new restaurant at The Watermarke. Went by there today and a black fence was up.

watermarke's website had info on it awhile back....


watermarketower.posterous.com

Towne restaurant


And, westsidelife, if you're still visiting this thread, some FYI & my admitting I deserve a few....



for posting awhile back that it was nothing but wishful thinking for anyone to believe the rams would ever return to LA. Even though the owner still is no less of a devout midwesterner who owns & lives in a big house in missouri, & even though I think he helped move the rams to st louis in the first place, he may not be as 100% dug in about keeping them there as I originally assumed....

Rams owner's recent comment

Kroenke was asked about the team's long term commitment to St. Louis (it moved from L.A. in 1994) during a press conference to introduce Jeff Fisher as the new head coach.

“I think this is all out there,” Kroenke said of a lease that allows the Rams to leave after the 2014 season if the Edward Jones Dome isn’t among the top 25 percent of all NFL stadiums. “The chronology of what occurs with the lease is public knowledge. I don’t think that for me to comment on that process is particularly timely. The city or the authority has within their power, they’re dealing with their side of it and they present a proposal to us by February 1"

Kroenke also said he hasn't at any point indicated that a move to Los Angeles is imminent, but did sum up his statements in a very non-committal way. “We’ll see how that process works out,” Kroenke said.

[ChelseaFC]

Everything coming out of that city right now is pointing to the Rams heading back to LA. Kroenke was reportedly very cold and distant in those comments you mentioned, which expectedly has really gotten the St Louis media going. Jeff Fisher went to Taft HS and USC. Kevin Demoff, the COO is from LA. If you listen to Demoff's comments in the local radio interview below, he's talking about this fantasy stadium getting done for the team, which everyone knows isn't going to be built anytime soon in that city.

http://www.emakshow.com/?paged=2

Here's an excerpt from a local guy on the Rams beat:

But after all of the hand wringing asking, “why doesn’t Stan speak up?” (and I’m as guilty of it as anyone), his answers on Tuesday about the lease situation were less than reassuring.

In fact, he probably would’ve been better off remaining silent.

“Well, I mean, I think this is all out there--I mean, the chronology of what…what occurs with the lease is public knowledge,” Kroenke said. “I don’t think for me to comment on that process is particularly timely. The city or the authority has within their power--they’re dealing with their side of it, and they present a proposal to us by February 1. There’s a team in place that deals with all of that, so we’ll see how that process sorts itself out; it’s a thing that takes place over time. As I said earlier, I started in St. Louis, in one year from now, it’ll be twenty years. I’ve been around here a long time. Contrary to a lot of reports, I haven’t taken a lot of ‘jack’ out of the market, as was reported. I have put a lot of ‘jack’ into the market.”

Jim Thomas followed up with a fine question meant to ease an answer out of Stan, “Stan, what I think everyone wants to know is do you plan to be here for another twenty years?”

Kroenke’s reply? “We’ll see how that process plays out.”

http://www.insidestl.com/insideSTLcom/ST...ArticleView/articleId/8147/Well-See.aspx

[travanx]

I live at Met Lofts and it appears as though there are restaurants under most of the property. To anyone who visits us and asks about parking, I tell them about the parking situation, and they look in horror when I say it's not easy to get parking for your place in DT. And they understand why I wanted to live in a place that had 2 parking spots in the building and not blocks away.

I will say it again and again, I have had to go to countless meetings about this type of stuff. It's very tricky and kills projects really fast. We even had a few DT projects where there were other tricky issues associated with how the space gets used that no one thinks about.

But I could see why just putting up a huge parking lot in the middle of the block is not really helping the people flow. Underground seems best to me, but is extremely expensive.

Originally Posted by citywatch

and I'm not going to be any less "ad nauseum" than those ppl who complain that big parking garages included in new devlpt are somehow destroying the future of the hood or making it too burban. Or their main complaint being about that, & NOT over such space requirements making new projs so $$$ to build, they end up getting cancelled. If I weren't so lazy, I'd insert photos of the large, multi level parking spaces under the 2 famous iconic circular apt towers in a prime part of chicago, or the large parking garage that was built under the Lincoln ctr for the performing arts in NYC.

[alki]

Originally Posted by citywatch

If "sanitize" means a city is full of truly large, impressive devlpt, old & new, where all the trappings of success & high achievement are on full display----inc lots of nice hotels, big office bldgs, pricey condo & apt bldgs, big dept stores, lots of cultural & entertainment offerings----then you're describing much of NYC.

I would say most ppl, esp fussy, demanding travelers, would describe the major cities across the atlantic---inc paris or london----as being clean & rather safe looking, at least by the standards of broadway in dtla, or all the pockmarked sections around LA live or where the eleven, luma & evo condo bldgs were put up a few yrs ago.

So I would say that words like "sanitize" or "clean" don't necessarily mean boring or burban.

Citywatch, you know exactly what I mean by sanitize. And tourists tend to be the least fussy and demanding. However, safety is an issue and for people who don't feel comfortable in cities, the way for them to feel comfortable is to have things be gritless......

[alki]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

I'm actually really excited about this. Not just because it is more offices being built in DTLA, but because they said they want to have a large 'street presence'. It would be great for them to clean up a historic building and have some sort of showroom on the bottom floor. I can't wait to see what becomes of this.

With SOM, a critical mass is getting built. I would really like to see a big office user......100K+ sq ft get pulled into DT's orbit...........something like the animation divisions of a Warner's or an MGM.

[alki]

Originally Posted by pesto

Not so. Over the last 40 years Paris, London, Manhattan (mid-town, 5th Ave.) have had huge cleaning projects to remove the filth and make the cities look half-way decent again. This was a national scandal and worldwide news story in the 1970's when Paris had basically turned dark gray. There should be many websites with before and after pictures.

//www.atkielski.com/PhotoGallery/Paris/General/OperaCleaningSmall.html

That building looks great cleaned up but do you think Paris was any less popular when its buildings were covered with grime? And do you really believe most buildings in Paris are free of grime now?

I am not suggesting that clean is bad. What I am saying is that most cities are always in varying degrees of a makeover. Some parts look really nice; others not so much. Its what I expect in cities. Maybe I set the bar too low.

[Illithid Dude]

Originally Posted by alki

With SOM, a critical mass is getting built. I would really like to see a big office user......100K+ sq ft get pulled into DT's orbit...........something like the animation divisions of a Warner's or an MGM.

MGM has a nice, new office tower in Century City. As a matter of fact, it was the last office tower built in L.A., in 2001. Personally, I'd like to see a headquarters move in from out of County to DTLA. Maybe something like Zurich Bank, which I recall wanted to make L.A. their West Coast headquarters. I like where you are going with the whole film company thing, but it isn't really feasible. They need large, campus developments for things like soundstages, backlots, screening rooms, etc. Sadly, film companies simply couldn't exist downtown.

[pesto]

Originally Posted by alki

That building looks great cleaned up but do you think Paris was any less popular when its buildings were covered with grime? And do you really believe most buildings in Paris are free of grime now?

I am not suggesting that clean is bad. What I am saying is that most cities are always in varying degrees of a makeover. Some parts look really nice; others not so much. Its what I expect in cities. Maybe I set the bar too low.

Yes. The Paris clean up was instituted due to increasing complaints and declining tourism. Same for NY and I would assume for every other cleaning project.

I'm not sure how you got onto this idea that filthy is attractive. "Paris Monumentale" is kept clean for tourist reasons, while the less visited, poorer districts are allowed to remain flithy. Of course, nothing is "spotless" in a city with 10M people.

[pesto]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

MGM has a nice, new office tower in Century City. As a matter of fact, it was the last office tower built in L.A., in 2001. Personally, I'd like to see a headquarters move in from out of County to DTLA. Maybe something like Zurich Bank, which I recall wanted to make L.A. their West Coast headquarters. I like where you are going with the whole film company thing, but it isn't really feasible. They need large, campus developments for things like soundstages, backlots, screening rooms, etc. Sadly, film companies simply couldn't exist downtown.

Agreed. That's why this kind of thing goes to Burbank or Glendale.

Again, we have to think of DT as DT, not as "let's put some of everything here and hope it all works out". No need for football stadiums any more than for manufacturing, race tracks, power plants, etc. Try to picture Manhattan or central Paris, not Indianapolis or Jacksonville.

[all of the trash]

What's this about the federal courthouse finally breaking ground? Is it still gonna be that glass tower that was in those renders many moons ago?

[colemonkee]

^ Here's an article from the Downtown News. It mentions a "scaled-down plan", so I would expect to see different renders eventually. There's no mention of a revised floor count. See below...



Image Source: http://www.ladowntownnews.com

Federal Courthouse to Begin Construction This Year
Long-Empty Hole at First and Broadway Finally to Be Filled

Thursday, January 19, 2012 4:23 pm
by Richard Guzman, City Editor

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - Long-delayed plans to build a federal courthouse in Downtown Los Angeles are finally moving forward. In the process, a longtime blight on the Civic Center, the hole on the southwest corner of First Street and Broadway, will finally be filled.

Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard's office said the federal General Services Administration will begin the process of awarding a construction contract for the courthouse this week. A spokeswoman for Roybal-Allard said construction on the $400 million project will begin this year.

(then, later in the article...)

Since then, the Federal Court committee overseeing the project and the GSA have tried to work out a scaled-down plan.

The building now will be a 600,000-square-foot edifice with 110 parking spots. There will be 24 courtrooms and 32 chambers in the building. It will house district judges, jury assembly facilities, offices for the the U.S. Marshals Service and more.

Read the entire article here.

[JDRCRASH]

Watch it be 3-5 stories.

[Illithid Dude]

Originally Posted by JDRCRASH

Watch it be 3-5 stories.

I would think not. For one, they are spending four hundred million dollars on it. That is a lot of money to spend on a low-rise building. Also, don't forget, it's a 600,000 square foot building, just a tad smaller then most office towers in DTLA. I expect it to be a little bigger then the LAPD headquarters, which cost about one hundred million less to build. Not bad.

I also noticed that the building only has 110 parking spaces. This is a tiny amount of parking for such a building, which is great. The surrounding area has more then enough parking to make up for it.

This building will also be the last major gap/deadzone to be filled in the Civic Center area. With the combination of this new Courthouse, the renovation of the Hall of Justice, and the new park, Civic Center is going to be quite the showcase for Los Angeles.

[Trojan]

Has anyone had lunch at the current courthouse building? There's a 'secret' cafeteria at the top on the 9th floor called Panorama Cafe. For cafeteria standards, it has great food and fair prices. I had a lobster roll the other day and a 270 degree view of DT and hills.

[sopas ej]

I'm actually excited about the new federal courthouse, that's great news.

This LA Times article says that "Plans call for the courthouse to be ready for occupancy no later than March 2016."

Click here:
Construction plans for downtown L.A. federal courthouse announced

[colemonkee]

Trojan, which courthouse building? The Stanley Mosk one on Temple, or the one further South on Spring? I have jury duty on the 30th, and would love to try it out.

[BrandonJXN]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

Does anyone know what is happening with this renovation? It's under construction right now, but we have no updates on it or anything.





It's on 8th and Fig.

I actually walked by there yesterday and there is a sign board that shows a slightly modified rendering.

[DistrictDirt]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

I'm actually excited about the new federal courthouse, that's great news.

This LA Times article says that "Plans call for the courthouse to be ready for occupancy no later than March 2016."

Click here:
Construction plans for downtown L.A. federal courthouse announced

Can we get a rendering up in here?