LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 6.0

[Dilbert]

Is it just me, or is Beaudry a little shorter than the 695' height as advertised. I haven't seen the building in person now that it has topped out, so if someone who has seen it recently can speculate as to whether it reached its advertised height and floor number (64), I'd appreciate it.

Love the building and the recessed balconies, as well as the different colors it reflects at different times of the day.

Can't wait to see what Brookfield does next for DTLA.

[Ptown2downtown]

^I pass by everyday l and it definitely looks like the core is topped out according to the new renders. Looks like the steel has 1 or 2 more floors to go. Kinda disappointed there will be a concrete box where a whole top floor could have been but it does make 695 feet.

[craigs]

This photo I posted yesterday from Urbanize Los Angeles gives a good sense of how tall Beaudry is getting:

[scania]

Looks like they took the crane down today.

[Doctorboffin]

I highly recommend making use of the Zone Information and Map Access System (ZIMAS). It can answer almost all these questions I regularly see brought up here (building height, status, design changes, etc).

http://zimas.lacity.org/map.aspx

If you've never used it before, go to your address, either by looking it up or finding it on the map and click on it. In this case, it would be 945 W 8TH ST and then go to the case numbers sub-page. From my experience things ending in SPR (Site Permit Review), or EIR (Environmental Impact Review) tend to have the best information. For projects that aren't already under construction, make sure to look not just at the approved document section, but the Initial Submitted Documents section too.

So, back to Beaudry, under its SPR you can find a ton of information (https://planning.lacity.org/pdiscaseinfo/search/encoded/MjIzMjA40) including its Elevation plans. I'll post a screenshot of one of the three pages below. But, assuming the building stuck with the approved plans, yes the final height is 694 feet, but that's only when it's being measured from the lowest grade or the 8th street entrance. When measured from FIGat7th, it is 669 feet, and when measured from the primary entrance on 7th street, the building is 654 feet.

To complicate it further, the actual roof height is 619 feet (when measured from 7th street), with the remaining 35 feet being the parapet and mechanical penthouse. So yeah, depending on how you measure it the building is anywhere from 619 feet, to 694 feet.

[citywatch]

the specific height of projs of new devlpt & particularly skyscrapers is one part of the puzzle, foot traffic, commerce & population are another part of the puzzle.

parts of broadway in dtla over 50 or 60 yrs ago may have had busier sidewalks like what NYC has today, even after the pandemic....but the number of vacant storefronts in dtla is a problem mainly because sales volume isn't higher, whereas in NYC it's because rental rates are too high.

Landlords in dtla don't stress out their retail tenants with overly high rents, but there are fewer potential customers walking around per day. In certain other cities...the big apple....the lack of potential customers doesn't stress out stores as much as the monthly rent does.

It's the fwys around dt...before & after the pandemic....that are congested, full of ppl stuck in their cars. While the sidewalks in dtla are a lot quieter. That contradiction has long exasperated me.


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^ almost no gaps in manhattan as there are in dtla, but the vacant storefronts lower the tone of nyc. In dtla, still too many gaps remain along with too many crowded fwys, but not enough ppl are out & about.

Not sure how dtla will become more balanced, not sure how nyc will become more balanced too.


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[headcheckjj]

Looks like the Skytree is eyeing a 2023-2026 construction timeline. From their new website:





https://oneglobalcapitalusa.com/

[craigs]

Another shot from LA Reddit showing Beaudry on the skyline:

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by headcheckjj

Looks like the Skytree is eyeing a 2023-2026 construction timeline.

If they can break ground sooner rather than later, that proj along with the onni tower at Olympic & Hill should add more sense of place to that part of dtla. South pk's many surface parking lots and small, rundown masonry bldgs have long hurt the hood....the image of the city in general. Further north on Hill st, I never thought the onni proj would begin work before the apt bldg proposed by equity residential....based in chicago....at the corner of 4th & Hill has even torn down the taco house shack.


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Dtla is experiencing the same thing described in this recent vid from a youtuber...but it seems like less new territory for LA because dt has long had declining areas like broadway or office bldgs with high vacancy rates. dtla was in free fall after the Rodney king riots in the 1990s.

Other parts of dt like its dept stores started seeing sales fall & businesses closing up starting over 50 yrs ago. Which means will a post pandemic economy hurt dtla even more than a nyc, chicago, SF, london, Tokyo?


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[ChelseaFC]

Ah, a good ole fashioned skyscraper race, this edition featuring Angels Landing and Sky Trees.

Although Onni vs Oceanwide is another interesting one to keep an eye on.

[caligrad]

The Oceanwide vs Onni race is truly sad on so many levels. SOOOO many levels.

[citywatch]

I understand why the height of a new proj in dtla or its design may be on the top of ppl's list as to what they think is most important in moving dt forward. But when I see what's going on in other cities....ones that I don't hear a lot about....I realize that what goes on in dtla may stay in dtla....& ppl throughout the world won't really care or notice.

this city has no skyscrapers...certainly no super talls....but it makes some of the streets & properties of dtla....full of gaps, parking lots, homelessness & wood phone poles (drive by where the new colburn concert hall is supposed to be built)...way too much a case of not ready for prime time.....whoa, look at this city's opera house.....I don't know if the music ctr in dtla attracts as many ticket buyers.


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^ The ppl in charge of LA, inc devlprs & officials at city hall, had better up their game. Although Dtla has good points that a Buenos Aires lacks, a buenos aires has good points that a DTLA lacks.


EDIT: I know this forum is about new devlpt in dtla, but judging what's going on in dt & what it needs or doesn't need really should be placed against the backdrop of other cities....throughout the US & also throughout the world.

I guess this is buenos aires' version of LA's grand central mkt, but look at how even more packed it is compared with gcm....I don't know how the demographics of LA have affected both dt & its economy, but Buenos Aires appears to have less diversity than dtla has. So in certain ways is more money or less money flowing through central Buenos Aires' economy compared with what's found in dtla?.....I know hoods like samo-venice or Pasadena-glendale have more daytime or weekend foot traffic than what dtla receives. So is dtla negatively affected by being in the middle of a lot of lower income hoods?


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Graffiti is visible in cities like, of course, dtla & buenos aires, but nyc seems to be taking it to an even higher level.

I've seen taggers mark up bldgs in dtla that required a lot of time, effort & even danger on their part. If taggers put as much time in improving their cities as they do in trashing them, they'd be architects, engineers, doctors, professors.

This isn't manhattan but one of NY's boroughs where more ppl have been moving to. I have enough problems with LA's landscape, but this seems even more a downer....maybe if NY had different weather, it wouldn't seem so hard edged? Regardless, more ppl live in that city than in any other city in america.

https://youtu.be/NVctsfp2-CI

[ChelseaFC]

Metro reaches construction milestone for 1.9-mile Regional Connector, expected opening fall 2022

https://thesource.metro.net/2022/04/18/m...ack-work-for-regional-connector-project/

[craigs]

More info and pics about downtown's Regional Connector transit project, which is expected to carry 88,000 passengers a day according to ABC7 news, from Streetsblog Los Angeles:

Preview of Metro’s Nearly Completed Regional Connector Subway

New downtown L.A. light rail subway due to open in Fall 2022

Joe Linton
Streetsblog Los Angeles
Apr 18, 2022

This morning, Metro hosted a tour of the under construction Regional Connector subway, slated to open later this year. Local press toured the nearly finished Grand Avenue Arts/Bunker Hill Station, including a brief test train ride to the new Historic Broadway Station.

Metro celebrated an important construction milestone today: the completion of all trackwork, guideway systems, and station platform areas. Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins and three Metro boardmembers all praised the anticipated mobility benefits of the project, calling it a game changer.

Metro’s Regional Connector is a $1.8 billion 1.9-mile light rail subway below downtown Los Angeles. The project will tie together the Metro A (Blue), E (Expo), and L (Gold) Lines, offering single-seat rides from East L.A. to Santa Monica, and from Azusa to Long Beach. Once the Connector opens, many Metro rail trips that had required one or two transfers will be faster and easier, requiring fewer transfers – in many cases no transfer.

Regional Connector construction got underway in 2014. The line was initially projected to open in 2020, but faced some delays and cost overruns. Now the project is 93 percent complete, according to this week’s Metro’s construction project status report.

As with other new Metro rail lines, the contractor turns over the project to Metro – when construction is said to be “substantially complete” – then Metro does testing and training for about six months before opening to the public.

With the Connector’s train systems construction substantially complete, Metro train testing is already underway. The remaining construction work – the three new stations – is expected to be completed by this summer. Wiggins, Mayor Eric Garcetti and County Supervisor Hilda Solis all announced that the Connector would open to the public in fall of 2022. Metro also plans to open the new Crenshaw/LAX light rail line this fall.

The Grand Avenue Station is located more-or-less behind the Broad Museum and the Disney Concert Hall; the station includes a new pedestrian bridge directly to the Broad.

Given Bunker Hill’s topography, the Grand Station will be the deepest in the Metro system, approximately 100 feet below street level.

[craigs]

And the photos:

[colemonkee]

The stations are far more utilitarian in design than the Red/Purple line stations, but they look good enough. And so glad to see this wrap up construction. Here's hoping the tower at 2nd & Spring can get underway once this wraps.

[Blesha13]

The Regional Connector is definitely a game changer. Too bad the LA Grand Hotel Tower is practically dead which could’ve added a pedestrian friendly vibe on the west side of Bunker Hill.

[hughfb3]

Originally Posted by Blesha13

The Regional Connector is definitely a game changer. Too bad the LA Grand Hotel Tower is practically dead which could’ve added a pedestrian friendly vibe on the west side of Bunker Hill.

The good thing about a proposal going through the planning process is that it lets the market know what’s possible on each lot. Circa plot was entitled to be a twin tower elliptical shaped project but the original developer, South Group exited the market after entitlements and it got scooped up and finished by Jamison... same thing with Moinian/LA Central, but still waiting… IYKYK I have it that it won’t be long for LA Grand Tower as entitlements would be very near to completion for a developer to 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 and go… although the planning commission will never approve of it at the height the developers proposed. It’s in the incorrect plot for that height and will be asked to shave off the top a bit.

So excited about the regional connector and seeing the signs with all those terminus cities in one station. What a shift.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by hughfb3

So excited about the regional connector and seeing the signs with all those terminus cities in one station. What a shift.

Yeah, even though this was already posted, I posted all the additional photos because they show the destination signs on the platforms. That's the real deal, and I cannot wait to ride through the Regional Connector!

[caligrad]

Not to be a negative nancy.....or Karen if you will........I'm happy its getting done and all that....But....I figured a station right next to a few Gehry projects and museums and arts institutes would be....oh I don't know....kinda artsy? lol looks very easy/streamline or cookie cutter if you will. The red line Hollywood stations are more interesting, even Tho they are gimmicky. This station screams get on and get off..... or does metro plan on adding some color later? So local art work would even work tbh. Murals and etc. hell some 80s retro neon lights stranger things style would even make me happy.