LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 6.0

[King Kill 'em]

Originally Posted by colemonkee

CaliNative, we're gonna have to report you to PETA for continually beating the neo Art Deco supertall dead horse...

Thank you. We already have a half neo Art Deco/half postmodern highrise anyways.

[caligrad]

https://urbanize.la/post/fresh-renderings-south-parks-second-apex-tower

I wonder what made Holland Partners tweak the design of Apex 2 at the last minute?

And i almost totally forgot about the reatail portion.

[Resident]

Originally Posted by caligrad

https://urbanize.la/post/fresh-renderings-south-parks-second-apex-tower

I wonder what made Holland Partners tweak the design of Apex 2 at the last minute?

Sonny Astani threatened them with a CEQA lawsuit if they didn't design it to his original plans and paid him off.

[SoCalKid]

Originally Posted by Resident

Sonny Astani threatened them with a CEQA lawsuit if they didn't design it to his original plans and paid him off.

Why does he care? Didn't he sell Apex phase I in 2011?

[colemonkee]

Any similarities between Apex Phase 1 and Apex Phase 2 cease to exist after the massing. Totally different facade system (curtain wall vs. window wall), different fenestration patterns, different glazing colors, different mullions and materials, far more balconies with different placements, etc. Those renderings are a bit misleading. when you see the buildings side by side with your own eyes, they look different. It's only when you photograph both of them from the street reflecting the same sky that they start to look alike. But that would happen with most glass clad buildings with similar massing.

[hughfb3]

Originally Posted by SoCalKid

Why does he care? Didn't he sell Apex phase I in 2011?

Astani never sold his Concerto project. His lender went bankrupt in the financial crisis; and his project was taken from him, as he was trying to find a new lender to finish it. The government gave this asset to ST residential as part of the restructuring deal; they renamed it Apex, and Astani has been irate ever since. Since then; ST residential sold it to Holland Partners, and here we are today.

Astani very much cares about Downtown and how it looks and feels. Which is why Apex has 2 floors of above grade parking completely hidden from the street beneath its central courtyard and between all 3 buildings. His 8th and Grand project would have also been another project that would have looked great; and would have had above grade parking that would be completely hidden from Street by design.

[blackcat23]

City Market

[caligrad]

^^^ That's still a thing??? on paper its one of the most realistic proposals downtown. But oddly has snagged the title of worst timeline of any project in the city. 20 years????? by the time this thing gets built, its going to be seriously outdated design wise and demand wise. And it has a loootttttttt of blank concrete walls all over. Screaming for graffiti.

The towers are ok i guess....But they are a copy of one of the Metroplis designs.

[black_crow]

Originally Posted by caligrad

And it has a loootttttttt of blank concrete walls all over. Screaming for graffiti.

Just a little side note. My area of the West L.A. neighborhood has not one single graffiti.
It's up to the residents to write L.A. graffiti removal. They remove graffiti in 24-48 hours.

https://myla311.lacity.org/portal/faces/...WindowMode=0&_afrWindowId=12rns7tnzn_1#!

I also remove small graffiti by myself with Goof Off (Professional Strength Graffiti Remover). People in my neighborhood saw that and got it too.

It's really not tough to turn a neighborhood around and the LAPD raised the money for leads.

I know that some Ghettos are lost cases, but Southpark and Downtown will change over time. All it takes are some citizens who actually care.

[caligrad]

Works for small businesses, residences and etc. Will it work for big projects like this as well. Especially in a project that's skid row adjacent.

[black_crow]

Originally Posted by caligrad

Works for small businesses, residences and etc. Will it work for big projects like this as well. Especially in a project that's skid row adjacent.

You could use anti-graffiti coating, but that area is pretty clean.
Just zoom in via Google Street View (1057 S. San Pedro St., Los Angeles).
Those business owners / residents report graffiti as soon as they see it.

They are actually a good role model.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by caligrad

^^^ That's still a thing??? on paper its one of the most realistic proposals downtown. But oddly has snagged the title of worst timeline of any project in the city. 20 years????? by the time this thing gets built, its going to be seriously outdated design wise and demand wise. And it has a loootttttttt of blank concrete walls all over. Screaming for graffiti.

Or murals.

[black_crow]

Another topic:

I wrote with Joes Huizar (Los Angeles City Council) about the Downtown Streetcar-Project.
He is still working with Metro to secure expedited Measure M money (otherwise we would be faced with a potential 36-year wait).

Los Angeles Streetcar, Inc. didn't respond to our request.

[Jun]

Originally Posted by caligrad

^^^ That's still a thing??? on paper its one of the most realistic proposals downtown. But oddly has snagged the title of worst timeline of any project in the city. 20 years????? by the time this thing gets built, its going to be seriously outdated design wise and demand wise. And it has a loootttttttt of blank concrete walls all over. Screaming for graffiti.

The towers are ok i guess....But they are a copy of one of the Metroplis designs.

City market south has been doing extremely well. It wouldn't surprise me if that if that timetable accelerates. As more and more empty lots in South Park get snatched up, we will see more developers start moving east into the fashion district for low hanging fruit.

[caligrad]

^^^ I hope so. That timetable needs to be shrunken down to next year. The longer they wait, the more its going to cost.

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Or murals.

I'm all for a GOOD mural. In most projects like this though, developers, in LA at least, tend to drop the ball hard. Like that random mess that was slapped onto that building sitting on top of the Wilshire/Vermont station. Give me a mural with substance and I'm all for it.

My main problem with all of that concrete and the project in general is that, based off the renderings, its coming off as a very modern/brutalist complex. Lots of concrete and blank spaces, something that 80s/90s sci fi movies tried to make us believe we were in for in the future. Id rather not. Glass curtain wall is starting to get boring but id take lots of glass over concrete.

top outs

So I was downtown today, I was doing floor counts (or trying to) and the 2 smaller towers for Oceanwide are somewhere around 32-34 floors up, so 6-8 more floors to go ? that should be done by the end of the year no?, I didn't bother trying to count the taller one.

Apex is currently at 24-25, so 3-4 more to go

With Onnis 50 story, I counted 35, so that one still has a lot to go and its already making a big impression on the skyline, especially for its location. So I imagine another 15 floors will make it stick out dramatically since its already visible from almost all angles when approaching downtown.

[bhunsberger]

Speaking of topping out and such - did anyone notice that the top of Metropolis is finally pretty much finished? Took a little while it seemed. Assuming all the mechanical things on the roof. Anyway, looks great! I remember someone a few pages ago posting about the 2 different colors on the Onni tower. Anyone know why that is? Was it part of the renderings?

[JerellO]

Originally Posted by bhunsberger

Speaking of topping out and such - did anyone notice that the top of Metropolis is finally pretty much finished? Took a little while it seemed. Assuming all the mechanical things on the roof. Anyway, looks great! I remember someone a few pages ago posting about the 2 different colors on the Onni tower. Anyone know why that is? Was it part of the renderings?

Haha that was me about the different glass from metropolis 1 & 2 to 3 & 4. Someone said it’s to make it look like separate complexes but to me it just seems like they wanted to go cheap on the two smaller towers. That ocean green color isn’t appealing to me but it’s okay I guess. In the renderings they were all uniform in glass type

[caligrad]

^^^ I think they are referring to Onnis 50 story. Someone posted a picture of it having one shade/form of glass being installed on one side and on the other side a different glass and pattern. I didnt pay attention to the facade when i was down there so i couldnt say if it changed or not.

[Blesha13]

And speaking of topping out, are there any towers that have yet to top out and have a live cam? Metropolis stopped their feed 2 weeks and ago and Circa just did earlier this week.

[Jun]

Originally Posted by Blesha13

And speaking of topping out, are there any towers that have yet to top out and have a live cam? Metropolis stopped their feed 2 weeks and ago and Circa just did earlier this week.

The park fifth one is still active:
https://app.oxblue.com/open/macfarlane/437shill