LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 6.0

[Just-In-Cali]

Originally Posted by Quixote

This rendering isn't on the blog post:


urbanize.la / Instagram

Great render!
The tower isnt remarkable design, but it is very much what is en vogue right now in tall building design in the West and some of South Asia. All edges and cutouts and angles. No central spires on top of a tapering crown, a la Chrysler building.
The fact that it really seems to be following the WG in conception and execution....the conversion of an older hotel into something much grander.
Still a clean design.

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by caligrad

611 needs its entire exterior ripped off and replaced with new sheets of glass to make it look more modern. The floor plans may be horrible for office space now but I'm sure its good enough for residential units. The blank slab on the back needs a giant mural that may changes every few years and this building will be great as is. I once heard someone on here say the top was a restaurant/cafeteria? maybe reopen that, that could be cool, or turn it into amenities for the residence. indoor pool, gym. etc. the lower deck could also hold a pool and doggy area and etc. It really has a lot of potential and isn't too far from metro stops.

An L.A. history motif would be an interesting mural, starting with the prehistoric period of the tarpits at the bottom, through the indigenous era, the Spanish & Mexican era, and modern era. The artist(s) would have to be brave, dangling that high. Maybe they can robotize the process. Maybe a light show would be easier, but I guess that would need to dangle workers as well. I guess window washing type thingies could be used to install it.

[CaliNative]

Originally Posted by Quixote

This rendering isn't on the blog post:


urbanize.la / Instagram

I'm all for it. Put a 250 foot spire with a beacon on top.

[BigCityOfDreams]

Originally Posted by citywatch

Good sarcasm....but not so much due to bunker hill in 2018 being less walkable than in the past....as much as bunker hill over 60 yrs ago being a fairly major example of...

dtla is in better shape today than ever before in the city's history since bldgs like this one originally were limited to daytime, temporary users only...

A lack of ppl living in dtla, beyond a small number on bunker hill...most who were struggling pensioners...or scattered throughout other parts of the hood, is a major reason dt wasn't a really well established part of the city. That made it easier for ppl to walk away from it...to abandon it for the burbs or other parts of LA...which then led to dt's major decline.

I do not know why you are always hating on the LA of old, and clamouring for an LA version of the Promenade or Old Pas? LA is doing amazing things precisely because of its diversity of uses, people and for its vast supply of gorgeous architectural buildings and unique character. Why are you always saying that LA is doing better today than it ever has before? This is 100% incorrect. LA was the center of the entire region south of the Tehachapis for most of its life, including for living quarters, manufacturing, and business. It is only now beginning to awaken from its long slumber after being abandoned by suburbanites like your self, in search of the sterility of promenades and faux european cafes. LA is doing amazing things, but it has a long way to go until it reaches its level of activity of the past.

bunker_hill_1900 by Brett Thomas, on Flickr

7th_and_Broadway_1926 by Brett Thomas, on Flickr

Spring_Street_and_Sixth_Street,_April,_1910 by Brett Thomas, on Flickr

[Blesha13]

Originally Posted by blackcat23

77 stories/1108 feet

Sexy! This tower is simple yet clean and screams Los Angeles. I'm loving that green facade as well. If only we can take a piece from the Crystal Cathedral and stick it up on the center of the tower as a spire that'll be great, but nonetheless this tower already looks great!

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by BigCityOfDreams

Why are you always saying that LA is doing better today than it ever has before? This is 100% incorrect. LA was the center of the entire region south of the Tehachapis for most of its life, including for living quarters, manufacturing, and business. It is only now beginning to awaken from its long slumber after being abandoned by suburbanites like your self, in search of the sterility of promenades and faux european cafes. LA is doing amazing things, but it has a long way to go until it reaches its level of activity of the past.

Partly true....but dtla in the past, except a few parts of bunker hill over 90 yrs ago, was never considered a fashionable place to live. Even when it was thriving, as shown in the pics you posted, much of that was due to a lack of competition. Back then, ppl would also visit dt during the day then return to other sections of LA when the sun went down.

another reason why it's hard to be too nostalgic about dt's past, it was never talked about as one of the great citified areas of the US or world....even when its streets were packed with well dressed ppl. LA in general, dt in particular, was still rated as in the shadows of other cities.

I see two reasons for that in this vid.....the former Giannini bldg on 7th St, home of bank of america, wasn't as sleek as today's nomad hotel. The former commercial exchange bldg on 8th St wasn't as friendly as today's freeman hotel. They were dark & quiet, or didn't exist, at the end of the day decades ago. Today, while they're not residential for full timers, they're at least occupied by ppl around the clock.

Those two sections of dt, however, really fell apart over 5 yrs ago, for most of the decades following the 1940s.


• Video Link


Edit: I have to add a third reason!...the large parking lot that used to exist south of the corner of 7th & olive, south of the coulter mandel bldg. It was a big gap in the past, even in the 1940s. Today? It's the large 8th & grand bldg, containing both apts & whole foods mkt.

[Quixote]

Another rendering not posted on ULA (from Curbed).

[blackcat23]

Originally Posted by Quixote

Another rendering not posted on ULA (from Curbed).

Er...yes I did.

Edit: Or I guess I forgot to upload the last two in the set.

[caligrad]

The idea that LA could potentially be getting 3 supertalls is a crazy thought (yes I'm still holding out that 925 fig will get an extra few feet to be classified as such). I remember when we got the Wilshire Grand, everybody collectively said "Whelp, enjoy this one because LA wont be getting another supertall for at least 20 years".... Well barely a year or two later, not just one but TWO with the potential for a 3rd and that's just what we know of, there can be proposals for another at anytime. And the amount of infill that's happening downtown. For anybody that's still doubting that Downtown will never be the center of the region. Well. Think again.

*EDIT*

Now that I think about it. It kinda looks like a taller/skinnier version of the now dead 755 tower that was proposed yeeaaaaars ago.

[scania]

Originally Posted by quixote

another rendering not posted on ula (from curbed).

Totally Sexy!!!

[Patrick]

Wow! I've never seen that rendering of the 755 Tower before! Crazy to see how much denser downtown has gotten since the early 2000's. There are surprisingly a lot of renderings still available online for this proposal, makes me want to start a never built Los Angeles thread

I love how the former Sheraton Hotel Tower is set diagonally to compliment the hotel structure and the nearby Bank Of America Plaza. I think the renderings make it look much taller than it will actually be but the design is still stellar nonetheless, no flat roofs! The angled rooftop makes me think a spire would compliment the design nicely, similar to the Bank Of America Tower in NYC. Maybe the developers will add one in order to secure it's status as tallest building on the west coast for years to come. Now to see what they are planning on the World Trade Center site...

[blackcat23]

New renderings for 1045 Olive

[gurbie]

“I think the renderings make it look much taller than it will actually be”

Gives you an idea how great it would have looked as a 1300 footer, though.

[citywatch]

Its design has been scorned, but L.A. Live has been crucial to downtown's resurgence


(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

By Roger Vincent
Jun 21, 2018

When the NBA All-Star Weekend returned to Los Angeles in February for the third time since 2004, it was no lucky fluke for the city. It’s a running joke in the basketball league, Commissioner Adam Silver said, that if team owners can’t have the annual showcase in their own cities, they want to have it at Staples Center and the adjacent L.A. Live complex in downtown L.A.

“The team owners love it,” Silver said, citing the $3-billion complex of hotels, restaurants, meeting rooms and other facilities. “It’s turnkey to bring the All-Stars to L.A.”

The trio of NBA All-Star games highlights how big events such as awards shows, concerts and movie premieres seem almost routine as L.A. Live marks its 10th anniversary. But the creation of one of the region’s largest economic engines, which was built by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz’s AEG, was years in the making — and there was nothing certain about its success.



(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)


For decades, planners lamented the state of the beaten-down blocks near the Los Angeles Convention Center. The neighborhood south of the downtown Financial District had once been filled with stately Victorian homes. But by the latter half of the 20th century, it was an unwelcoming expanse of parking lots interspersed with small, run-down apartment buildings and shabby storefronts.

“What Staples and L.A. Live have done for downtown Los Angeles is epic,” said Steve Soboroff, who had a hand in their birth and is now president of the city Police Commission. Soboroff was an economic advisor to Mayor Richard Riordan in the late 1990s when he spotted a potential spot for an arena north of the Los Angeles Convention Center on Figueroa Street and Pico Boulevard.

It was home not just to the Kings, but to the Lakers and Clippers basketball teams. Still, to many visitors, the experience was not much different from attending an event at the Forum in Inglewood. Most fans drove in, parked on surface lots, then drove away when the game or show was over.



(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)


When civic leaders traveled to New York to pitch investors on the merits of downtown L.A. in 2002, real estate mogul Donald Trump weighed in. "The downtown area has heretofore been sort of a depressing place," said Trump, who had recently bought Ocean Trails Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes. "It needs people. It needs life."

Some critics were unimpressed with the design and its glass, metal and limestone facade. The Times’ architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne said the buildings have a “sleek placelessness,” with “almost nothing to say to or about downtown Los Angeles.”

With its courtyard and walkways, L.A. Live was meant to create a European-style public space that people could enjoy on foot, which was also visually compelling as seen from nearby freeways, said architect Nate Cherry of L.A. Live design firm CallisonRTKL.

The place is indisputably busy. AEG calculates that about 20.4 million people a year visit L.A. Live and Staples Center, surpassing the estimated attendance of 18.3 million for Disneyland last year.

“This whole area was blighted until AEG made the commitment to L.A. Live,” said Brad Hall, one of the owners of Hotel Figueroa, a 1920s-vintage inn that used to cater to tour groups in search of inexpensive lodging. The owners recently completed a $75-million makeover that transformed the 12-story tower into a posh boutique hotel where rooms are priced at $339 a night.

South Park is now enough of an entertainment destination to be “probably the most vibrant submarket in all of Los Angeles metro,” Hall said.

L.A. Live was “a major catalytic development for downtown Los Angeles,” said Thomas Feng, chief executive of Oceanwide’s American subsidiary.

The chairman of the Los Angeles Olympics bid, Casey Wasserman, said the complex and other local facilities such as housing at UCLA were central to the city’s pitch to the IOC. “Most Olympic cities talk about what they are going to build,” Wasserman said. “These are things that exist.”

.

[jprovost2020]

The prophetic LA skyline from the recent Audi commercial is unfolding before our eyes.

[JerellO]

Originally Posted by blackcat23

New renderings for 1045 Olive

Wow I love the new look and I’m obsessed with that entrance with the towering green plants thingy.

Also the new look of the podium facade along with the cut out in the middle of the tower sort of reminds me of what the Broad was supposed to look like but failed miserably. I’m sure this time developers will find someone who can actually do it right lol it has that honeycomb look to it. Awesome! Can’t wait for this one to get built, this stretch is gonna end up having y’all residential towers. I’ve always envisioned the historic core enveloped by skyscrapers, this will help fill that up.

As for L.A. Live, I love that space, every time I visit LA I take the red train from Santa Monica/Vermont station (my buddy lives a block away), and then get off at the Metro Center. Make my way down to take it all in at LA Live and then back up to Fig@7th to do some damage to my bank account. Then I usually walk down 7th street to marvel at the historic architecture and make a stop at Grand Central when I get hungry again before I hop back on the subway to go back to my friend’s pad. That’s usually my routine when I’m up there.

It’s still kind of short lived as more restaurants and shops inside the Bloc are still opening up and places like Oceanwide are still under construction, but I think in time I’ll be able to spend more than 2 hours downtown. Next time I’m up I wanna make my way to skyspace ☺️ When I’m not already too tired, sometimes I make my way to Hollywood and be a typical tourist. I love that Dave & Busters opened up in Hollywood.

Downtown needs a GameStop lol I had to transfer to the purple train to go to the one on Wilshire/Vermont.

There’s my little 2 cents on how I enjoy your amazing and ever evolving city ❤️

[caligrad]

^^^ You're right. The new mesh-ish material covering the podium and midway section looks similar to the Broads exterior. I wonder if that was intentional. Art mimicking art.

https://urbanize.la/sponsored/hacking-the-highrise

Interesting little article on Urbanize about DTLAs Class A (aka office towers). I think as all of these projects get off the ground, we will start to see these office towers switch on and be upgraded to accommodate current trends like creative office space/floor plans with less walls and more open floor plans.

Need Proof ?

https://urbanize.la/post/60-million-renovation-underway-wells-fargo-center

The Wells Fargo Center is getting a 60 million renovation, Is it jaw dropping ? not by a long shot, BUT, it lets us know that the owners of those bunker hill towers are finally starting to wake up. As that space gets reactivated, THEN we'll start to see construction of new office towers downtown. I give it a few more years.

[jprovost2020]

Originally Posted by JerellO

Wow I love the new look and I’m obsessed with that entrance with the towering green plants thingy.

Also the new look of the podium facade along with the cut out in the middle of the tower sort of reminds me of what the Broad was supposed to look like but failed miserably. I’m sure this time developers will find someone who can actually do it right lol it has that honeycomb look to it. Awesome! Can’t wait for this one to get built, this stretch is gonna end up having y’all residential towers. I’ve always envisioned the historic core enveloped by skyscrapers, this will help fill that up.

As for L.A. Live, I love that space, every time I visit LA I take the red train from Santa Monica/Vermont station (my buddy lives a block away), and then get off at the Metro Center. Make my way down to take it all in at LA Live and then back up to Fig@7th to do some damage to my bank account. Then I usually walk down 7th street to marvel at the historic architecture and make a stop at Grand Central when I get hungry again before I hop back on the subway to go back to my friend’s pad. That’s usually my routine when I’m up there.

It’s still kind of short lived as more restaurants and shops inside the Bloc are still opening up and places like Oceanwide are still under construction, but I think in time I’ll be able to spend more than 2 hours downtown. Next time I’m up I wanna make my way to skyspace ☺️ When I’m not already too tired, sometimes I make my way to Hollywood and be a typical tourist. I love that Dave & Busters opened up in Hollywood.

Downtown needs a GameStop lol I had to transfer to the purple train to go to the one on Wilshire/Vermont.

There’s my little 2 cents on how I enjoy your amazing and ever evolving city ❤️

Design reminds me of 50 Biscayne in Miami. That pool is awesome.

[black_crow]

Originally Posted by Blesha13

Sexy! This tower is simple yet clean and screams Los Angeles. I'm loving that green facade as well. If only we can take a piece from the Crystal Cathedral and stick it up on the center of the tower as a spire that'll be great, but nonetheless this tower already looks great!

I agree.

I like the design and it's a massive project.
Imagine the reactions to that rendering 6-7 years ago.. before we got spoiled.

[Quixote]

Found a new rendering of 1133 Hope (under construction):



And a new rendering of the Olympic/Fig tower: