LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 4.0

[LosAngelesDreamin]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

This broke ground today. Really ugly, but whatever. It's in a far-flung corner of downtown anyways. So, move to construction, I guess.

I agree, I personally liked the Libeskind Tower =/ it was different... whether or not ppl liked it... it would've drawn more eyes to downtown because of its weird shape and slashes

[RuFFy]

Originally Posted by citywatch

The Wilshire grand proj is similar to the new federal courthouse proj at broadway & 1st, in that both of them have been forced back to the drawing board cuz of problems with money. So the timeline for such projs will be even more drawn out.

Just for the sake of argument, is impossible that Korean Air never had the intention of building 2 skyscrapers and purposely put out bogus plans with the intention of achieving a tall height limit and the ability to place decorative video on its building? Also, when you consider that the face of the Los Angeles skyline is generally accepted to be from the south west the need for the tallest isn't important because being closer from that point of view would still give the perception of tallest simply by the virtue that it would be closer? Personally I view all these moves as strategic. Video on a building bearing the name of their organization on a building with graphics that appears to be the largest building on the most televised skyline in the world is very lucrative for any company looking to raise its profile.

[Downtown Los Angeles]

So the previous design for the Wilshire Grand said that it was only 60 storeys and around 1,250 ft and the new one says it will be 70 storeys but it will be shorter the the U.S. Bank Tower? what the...

[Zapatan]

Again, the author of the article clearly did not understand that floor count does not equal height, so we don't know if it's shorter or not.

plus those 65 floors were all offices and the 1250 figure was to a spire. This new building is mixed use and may not have a spire.

[RuFFy]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

Regarding Korean Air, it is a pretty successful airline. It operates out of Seoul-Incheon, a relatively new, modern airport: http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/24/business/fi-incheon24 . Korean Air operates several A380 aircraft, has an alliance with Delta and other global carriers, and has good connections throught Asia. Carriers such as Korean Air that focus largely on international traffic have been some of the most successful, because they're able to charge higher fares and there is less competition. Korean Air also offers non-stop LAX-Sao Paulo service (http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/05/30/idUS246380+30-May-2008+PRN20080530) which is baesd on extremely rare fifth freedom rights (http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2009-12-07-foreigntravel07_ST_N.htm).

Adding to this, Los Angeles is home to the largest population of Koreans outside of Korea proper. Koreans also view Los Angeles as a bargain city to set up shop and residence. Coupled with Los Angeles being the closest US Metro with an established Korea Town, the Korean population as well as business connections with that country are on the rise.

As far as the 2017 opening date it's going to coincide with the Expo reaching Santa Monica & the to Gold Azusa. It would be within 2 years of the Purple opening to La Cienega and the completion of the Downtown Connector. Being above the 7th St Metro Center it could easily become the most desirable office building in all of Los Angeles because of the exponentially increased labor pool.

[LAofAnaheim]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

This broke ground today. Really ugly, but whatever. It's in a far-flung corner of downtown anyways. So, move to construction, I guess.

Location please?

[colemonkee]

^ On the east side of Figueroa, just south of the 4-story apartment building on the corner of Figueroa and Pico, directly across from the Convention Center. There will be 3 buildings that will eventually fill most of that parking, as well as a parking lot immediately adjacent fronting Flower Street.

[CITYofDREAMS]

Originally Posted by Zapatan

It was the chairman of Korean Air who said that, but alas he is not the architect.

Hope you are right... but being the chairman I think he would be well inform about the project.

[Quixote]

We're just one month away from the opening of the revamped Civic Park. Here's a photo update from last week:

http://civicpark.lacounty.gov/c/05112012/constructionphotos2.html

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by bobcat

I'm not sure about the rules regarding posting entire articles from pay sites so I'll pm you the rest of the article.

WSJ.com tracks your computers so you can't view articles from their site past a certain "trial period," though I still able to able to access the article by deleting their cookies.

thanks, bobcat. I thought the wsj.com site had a very firm pay wall, so that only a few articles they don't mind making available to the public can be read in their entirety, & the one on dtla wasn't one of them.

based on the first article you linked to, I was hoping you were trying to show my previous post was overly . So the 2nd report you referred to would be mostly positive & contain news that indicated things are much better than before. but unfortunately this is what stood out in the story....

Consider the deal that is in the works for 400 South Hope St., a 1980s-vintage tower a few blocks from the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall. CBRE Global Investors has agreed to pay about $236 million to buy the 26-story tower from a venture of Tishman Speyer Properties and asset manager BlackRock Inc., BLK +1.79% according to people familiar with the matter.

That price, which equates to about $337 a square foot, is still shy of the roughly $351 a square foot that Tishman Speyer and BlackRock paid in 2005.... By comparison, prices for the best buildings in the strongest markets in the Los Angeles region as well as the rest of the country are approaching record highs.

"If any central business district is lagging, it's Los Angeles," says Dan Fasulo, a Real Capital managing director.

The downtown Los Angeles market has long suffered higher vacancy rates than other office markets in the region.

The downtown market strengthened during the boom years leading up to the latest recession, but it got blasted again with the financial crisis, according to Steve Marcussen, executive director with Cushman & Wakefield in Los Angeles. Downtown Los Angeles's first-quarter office vacancy rate stood at 15.5%, above the 13.2% rate in West Los Angeles, 10.3% in Santa Monica and 8.7% in Beverly Hills, according to Reis Inc., a real-estate research firm.

^ ruffy, I think this is the MAIN reason the Korean airline changed their plans for a larger proj as they got closer to the original groundbreaking date. Over the past several months I've now seen figures for just how much empty space exists in even some of the newer, better towers in the hood. the situation makes me quite surprised & more disappointed. iow, even though I knew there was a lot of vacant space, I didn't realize it involved so many bldgs. and that's not even adjusting for all the bldgs that have been converted to housing over the past 5 yrs.

and some ppl believe that improving rapid transit is the magic pill that will cure problems like this? that being very, very, very fussy about the details of a specific proj's design is another magic potion for what ails dt? too bad things weren't as simple as that.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by Westsidelife

We're just one month away from the opening of the revamped Civic Park. Here's a photo update from last week:

I'm glad you posted that link cuz for some reason I always have a hard time finding it when doing a google search. but whoever designed it should be bopped on the head, for the pics----even with my otherwise ok internet connection---take a long time to load & view.

some of the major walkways look wider than necessary, with more hard space in the park than required, unless the designers are expecting huge crowds of ppl on most days strolling around in their sunday best. but it's still an improvement over the dated mall from the past.

I wonder why the fountain was drained of all its water after having been filled & tested not long ago? a problem with leaks?

another thing: even though the old state bldg on 1st st was torn down over 30 yrs ago (or whenever), which allowed the view of the area behind it to be opened up----& which will now finally be part of the mall instead of a parking lot----I'm not sure that has necessarily made, or will make, more ppl want to visit that area than the rest of the mall farther west. That's not to say the govt bldgs from the late 1950s aren't blocking some of the park's accessibility, but they may not be affecting ppl's behavior as much as many urbanists think.

I've mentioned previously that there's a very nice, rather large & very green park just a few blocks south of old town Pasadena, totally visible on all sides from the 4 streets that surround it, that is surprisingly quiet & free of visitors on most hours of most days. So why park space is or isn't popular may not be due to factors that are easily figured out.

[LosAngelesBeauty]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

This is interesting. We know about the hotel, and an office building, but all the rest is new. The office building we know of is supposed to be 400,000 square feet. It looks like AEG wants to build around 600,000 square feet. Moreover, this 25 story residential tower is completely new news.

The studio space is supposed to be the NFL network from Culver City.

[StethJeff]

Originally Posted by Westsidelife

We're just one month away from the opening of the revamped Civic Park. Here's a photo update from last week:

http://civicpark.lacounty.gov/c/05112012/constructionphotos2.html

too much concrete and stupid shapes. reminds me of pershing square. not what we needed. hate it.

[LosAngelesBeauty]

Originally Posted by StethJeff

too much concrete and stupid shapes. reminds me of pershing square. not what we needed. hate it.

I agree. What happened to just trees, grass, some flowers sprinkled with some chairs and tables? Why are we making this so difficult?

[Illithid Dude]

Originally Posted by BrighamYen

I agree. What happened to just trees, grass, some flowers sprinkled with some chairs and tables? Why are we making this so difficult?

There is going to be trees and grass. All of that dirt is going to be grass. Personally, I like the park. I think, for what they had to work with, they did a great job.

[all of the trash]

Park is incredibly disappointing.

We need parks, not plazas.

Also the Wilshire Grand...another reason why I'll prefer 5-12 story buildings is they get built quicker and transform neighborhoods more effectively and faster. I'll never understand the need (economically, urban planning wise, functionally) for another skyscraper anywhere in Los Angeles, including downtown other than it 'looks cool.' You can have a lot of cool glamour things at a shortened height if cities like tokyo are any indication.

[Illithid Dude]

Curbed posted another one of the ideas for the South Park hotel, this time by Teiger Architects. This is not the winning proposal. That goes to Sam Marshall Architects in Florida (which is weird because, according to their site, they have done literally nothing- just a high school and a jail). Anyways, here are the pictures.

[Valyrian Steel]

The park looks fine, though it could use less concrete and more green.

[StethJeff]

Originally Posted by BrighamYen

I agree. What happened to just trees, grass, some flowers sprinkled with some chairs and tables? Why are we making this so difficult?

end-to-end lawn with trees running the perimeter. throw in a fountain, gazebo, park benches, and a half-dozen chess tables. *boom* problem solved.

[The Dirty Goblin]

Originally Posted by BrighamYen

I agree. What happened to just trees, grass, some flowers sprinkled with some chairs and tables? Why are we making this so difficult?

I know. I was thinking the same thing. I couldn't find any benches in any of these pics. Granted it's not done, so it's possible they will put them in.

Speaking of pershing square kcet did a cool "journey" with it's redevelopments. So sad to see where it has gone.

http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/...las-oldest-park-through-the-decades.html