LOS ANGELES | METRO Project Rundown 2.0 (non-downtown)

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by ThreeHundred

I'm actually a big fan of those post-streamline (new architecture term?) apartments on Wilshire.

If I wasn't aware of what that hood was like in the past, I might have mistaken at least a few of those new post modern apt bldgs for rehabs of old art deco bldgs. of course, upon closer inspection most ppl will be aware of the difference. but at a quick glance, I could have easily thought the artificial old was actually built over 60 yrs ago.

and the new high school where the ambassador hotel once stood makes me think it can easily be the most $$$ looking campus in the city, or country. very fancy schmancy...I hope the kids going to school there appreciate what they've been given.

as for much of the wilshire corridor, if most streets in LA looked like that avenue, LA would be quite primo & easy to acclimatize to imho.

[Illithid Dude]

Originally Posted by ThreeHundred

I'm actually a big fan of those post-streamline (new architecture term?) apartments on Wilshire. Avalon Wilshire, 5600 Wilshire, and those similar prove that you can make a quality wood framed building.

White I loathe 5600, I think Avalon is one of the best examples of a new type III apartment building in the city. Of course, I wish it was taller, but for what it is, it's great.

Originally Posted by citywatch

and the new high school where the ambassador hotel once stood makes me think it can easily be the most $$$ looking campus in the city, or country. very fancy schmancy...I hope the kids going to school there appreciate what they've been given.

Maybe so, but the fact that LAUSD destroyed such an important part of L.A. history sours any good thoughts I have about that campus.

[pesto]

Originally Posted by RST500

I see all those low rise going up in Miricle Mile and just think that they are running out of space for highrises in the future "if" the market ever improves or when the subway finally opens. There are probably only about 5 spaces left for new highrises on Wilshire between La Brea and Fairfax.

True, but there are many, many nondescript, half empty buildings just waiting to get axed. The 'hood did lose a few decos in the past but (in general) anything half-way decent is now protected and the rest are expendable.

In any event, high-rise is going to mostly huddle around the subway stops and I am not aware of any great demand for over 20-stories. between, say, Highland and BH. Same idea as Hollywood; there's miles of space and little new demand.

[BrandonJXN]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

White I loathe 5600, I think Avalon is one of the best examples of a new type III apartment building in the city. Of course, I wish it was taller, but for what it is, it's great.

Not just on Wilshire but there are a lot of areas in Los Angeles that could benefit from a few of these types of apartment buildings.


http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2628/3992629497_e6b6e9e8ba_z.jpg?zz=1

[Illithid Dude]

I actually means 5550 Wilshire, but Avalon is nice too.

[RST500]

Originally Posted by pesto

True, but there are many, many nondescript, half empty buildings just waiting to get axed. The 'hood did lose a few decos in the past but (in general) anything half-way decent is now protected and the rest are expendable.

In any event, high-rise is going to mostly huddle around the subway stops and I am not aware of any great demand for over 20-stories. between, say, Highland and BH. Same idea as Hollywood; there's miles of space and little new demand.

There will be the demand in the future, especially if/when the subway comes in. There is only a limited amount of locations for new highrises such as parking lots and low to mid rises with no historic value.

[colemonkee]

That image of that Wishire apartment building is borderline misleadingly flattering. In daylight the materials do [I]not[I] hold up very well. The massing is there, and the vertical deco elements work well, but the use of stucco, window fenestration, and treatment of the balconies (with more stucco!) really cheapen the aesthetics of the building overall. Had this been clad in stone or terra cotta on the vertical columns, and even painted concrete on the interior spaces, with more streamline modern fenestration and curved insets on the balconies, this would have been a far better building. But next to the office building next door, it looks like a cheap knock-off sold by a street vendor in Santee Alley.

[blackcat23]

Been lurking for a while, thought I'd contribute with some pictures of the Cedars-Sinai expansion that I took last week.

[colemonkee]

Welcome to the forum, blackcat23. Thanks for the pictures. I didn't know this addition would have a skybridge.

[Mojeda101]

The Vermont link says it's 25 and 30 stories?

[Illithid Dude]

Originally Posted by Mojeda101

The Vermont link says it's 25 and 30 stories?

Yes?

[Mojeda101]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

Yes?

He has the towers listed as 22, and 28 stories in the thread.

[Illithid Dude]

Originally Posted by Mojeda101

He has the towers listed as 22, and 28 stories in the thread.

Just counted. The towers are 28 stories and 22 stories. The developers must have just rounded up, for marketing sake.

[Illithid Dude]

Hey circuit fiend, have they still been digging at the 1000 Danta Monica Blvd site, or was all that earth moving just a tease?

[JDRCRASH]

Danta Monica Blvd is one of my favorite streets in LA!! lol

[circuitfiend]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

Hey circuit fiend, have they still been digging at the 1000 Danta Monica Blvd site, or was all that earth moving just a tease?

The dig now extends across the entire width of the property. Once that was accomplished, soil testing began in ernest. Other than that, nothing new.

I was on vacation all last week and upon my return, pretty much the same. The largest backhoe is gone, but we still have a smaller one and a bulldozer, although they've been parked on the side of the property and haven't moved. Workers have been in the trenches, cutting into the edges and drawing samples.

So, hopefully optimistic here. I can't imagine developers would go through with such an extensive dig without concrete plans to build something.

I'll post a pic later today, but it's nothing to get excited about. When activity picks up, I'll be sure to keep my fellow forumers informed.

[Kingofthehill]

The affordable housing development one block west of Hollywood/Western is appears to have topped out, and is now finishing up. Additionally, the row of one-story storefronts immediately to the east of that building are all surrounding by green fencing. I am not sre if they are being renovated or demolished. CIM did alot of work in this area.

Also, the huge La Brea/Wilshire project is, finally, at ground level.

[sopas ej]

From KCRW:

Will one of LA’s most notorious public housing projects get a makeover?
BY: SAUL GONZALEZ

Think “public housing” and likely bad things come to mind: gangs, drugs, despair and urban blight. Instead of clean and dignified places, where low-income individuals live temporarily until they get their lives together, public housing projects have become “warehouses of the poor,” where families live for generations in decaying housing units.

But over the last two decades there’s been a trend to knock down and rebuild some of the worst housing projects in the United States. Dangerous and decaying buildings with no amenities have been demolished and replaced with attractive housing units offering social services, green space and retail. There’s also been a move to open up public housing sites to people who want to buy or rent housing units in them at fair market, the big idea being when people of different incomes live together, healthier and safer communities are created.

This is exactly the plan for one of L.A.’s most notorious public housing projects, the sprawling Jordan Downs complex in the heart of Watts. Jordan Downs is home to more than two thousand people, who live in 700 barracks-style housing blocks. The Los Angeles Housing Authority wants to demolish the development and replace it’s calling an “urban village” model.

[...]

Read the rest here:
Will one of LA’s most notorious public housing projects get a makeover?




Jordan Downs today


Jordan Downs tomorrow?

[LAsam]

2/3s to be sold or rented at market? It's not really a housing project anymore at that point... where are all the displaced residents supposed to go? This looks to benefit developers and the city at the expense of it residents... am I missing something?

[pesto]

An interesting experiment, at least in some aspects.

It's long been understood that the facilities are not the problem. The people are the problem: parents and neighbors that replicate children to be just like themselves. Anyone with hope for their kids gets out even if it means working night and day for decades.

The key is to convince a reasonable number of the people with an interest in improving their lives to stay in the projects. Eventually, these form a neighborhood where some social pressure can be brought to bear on the really anti-social elements (the addicts, criminals, lazy, insane, violent, etc.) and some demand for living there can be created.

Kind of funny to see that even here, some are worried about the projects "gentrifying". All this means is that the hopeless poor die off or move out and the new generation who are not quite as poor move in. Happens everywhere, every day, every city, all over the world. It's called "economic progress". Setting the beam too high (by hoping to make the current poor into rich) destroys the possibility of any progress.

btw, this sort of thing has been done in Latin America for a couple of decades now. It was noticed that when the residents of dilapidated projects were moved into new projects, they became dilapidated within years, sometimes months. Everything valuable torn out and sold off for dope and alcohol. Now, community building takes precedence over construction with very good results.