LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 3.0

[Quixote]

They're not going to make any dramatic changes (if any) to the original structure to accommodate the new retail space, are they?

[JDRCRASH]

Man this car dependent city problem is all John D Rockefeller's fault!
(Of course then Los Angeles would never be the size it is today had it not been for the automobile.)

[cityguy]

Man this car dependent city problem is all John D Rockefeller's fault!
(Of course then Los Angeles would never be the size it is today had it not been for the automobile---I think it's Henry Ford's fault.

[Sammdogg]

Originally Posted by cityguy

Man this car dependent city problem is all John D Rockefeller's fault!
(Of course then Los Angeles would never be the size it is today had it not been for the automobile---I think it's Henry Ford's fault.

It's because of LA's early decision not to build high rises. That decision caused LA to be spread out. Now LA is trying to build up even though its population is centralized compared to other major cities.

[ladowntowner]

Originally Posted by JDRCRASH

Man this car dependent city problem is all John D Rockefeller's fault!
(Of course then Los Angeles would never be the size it is today had it not been for the automobile.)

Hence the nickname "JDRCRASH"?

I'm sure it's not all his fault. There are plenty of other individuals, politicians and corporations that played their part. As citizens we all have to take our share of the responsibility too.

L.A. was on track to become just as big (in population) as it is now before the car took hold. Water supply had been the limiting factor. Mulholland and the LADWP addressed that in 1913, well before the car came on the scene in a big way. In the years before the car took over, L.A.'s population doubled and tripled each decade - never to be duplicated after the arrival of the car en masse. There was a great public transit system in place. The city proper would have been much denser than it now is had that system been favoured instead of the personal auto. There could have still been farmlands between denser villages and towns serviced by modernized interurban trains and wild open spaces beyond. The car just guaranteed the miserable sprawl and resulting traffic and air pollution we have. In this though, we are not alone. Just about every metropolitan region in the U.S. suffers this same fate now due to the car.

The people would have come with or without the auto because of the weather and lifestyle it allows. This is the big draw to our region. I'm not sure if you've lived anywhere else other than Southern California, but most other places in the U.S. are absolutely miserable weather wise either in the summer or winter, or more often than not both with normally very brief pleasant respites in spring and fall.

[DJM19]

A lot of it was probably LA's sprawling rail expansion. Real estate along the rail lines is what funded them, and soon the people bulding the lines started neglecting them to focus more on selling land, and the line service was becoming bad, compounded by the fact that people moving to the outer street car suburbs were begging to buy cars and take up road space.

Then companies like GM came along and bought the rail lines

[JDRCRASH]

How is it Henry Ford's fault?
The Automobile was one of the greatest achievements in history.
What I mean is that relying ONLY on that particular mode of transportation is economically unhealthy....
Much of the residents living here don't realize that the Los Angeles Basin was once one of the largest oil reserves in the world!!!!

And has anybody forgotten about the record dry weather here in Southern California....its enough to give people Athletes' Foot and scratch themselves all day!
That would be cool if I was indeed related to Rockefeller.....
I mean i'd be worth what....$200 Billion is it?

[anton]

There are some images of the downtown Pinkberry now on Flicker:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/a7bat/514313967/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/a7bat/514313963/
"Pinkberry creating competition for the delicious Ce Fiore. "

[suga]

For all the yuppie-condo boosters here(not that I dont encourage it myself):

Have you noticed that the only dead space on broadway for the past year has been in front of the orpheum/broadway bar and other conversion locations? This scares me, as so many are ONLY working on a DTLA for the rich, yet what they want does not seem to be coalescing into a vibrant streetscape (except for small pockets like by Pete's, and it still is not "Broadway/the alleys" vibrant).

Please give me some feedback on this reality....

[RAlossi]

^ I really don't think Downtown is as bad as you think it is, suga. I'm by no means rich -- but I'm half white, so maybe the world smiles on me (lol!) -- and I live Downtown and love it. I have to work my ass off to live here and pay off student loans and pay down credit debt and all the other things that come with living in today's America -- but I'd also have to do the same thing if I lived almost anywhere else in LA.

Downtown is still a bargain compared to lots of places like Studio City, major sections of the Westside, Pasadena, etc... I drive 1/4 of what I used to drive when I lived in the Valley, which is almost $250 in savings in gas alone.

I don't really know what I'm trying to say here, but I just don't see the same cold anti-brown anti-poor anti-middle class Downtown you seem to see.

[colemonkee]

Nice shots, Friday. Here's some of the South Park area from yesterday.


Evo

13 floors up so far, 10 to go.



Cladding on the east side (Grand Ave. side)




Luma

Putting the finishing touches on. Should be done by the end of June. When move ins start, I'll move this one to "completed" on the front page.





The sidewalks are open, but there's still quite a bit of ground level work to finish.




Hanover Tower

The roof deck has been poured, so no more floors. The only thing left is the "cap" that I assume will hold some mechanical equipment. From Olympic:



Render view down Fig (with LA Live in the foreground)



See the rebar poking up above the roof deck? That's as high as the "cap" will go. You can kind of see they've bent it down.




LA Live

Lots of progress here. First the Nokia Theater. All these shots are from various angles along Chick Hearn Ct.







The ESPN Building, from Chick Hearn Ct. This is the side that will face the Nokia Plaza.



The Club Nokia building from Olympic (ESPN in the background).



And finally, the site of the future Ritz Carlton/Marriot hotel. It's a difficult area to photograph, but you can see they're digging further down on the right hand side, as ThreeHundred mentioned earlier last week.




717 Flower

Lots of rebar. It's hard to tell, but the core is the mass of rebar on the left side. I think it'll be a few weeks - or even a month - before we see floor plates above ground, but they are moving at a decent pace.




Market Lofts

Work continues on the Ralph's and the retail spaces, with the crane for 717 Flower in the background.




LAPD Headquarters

I wonder when they're going to install a tower crane?




DORKS!!!!!
(I just know she's thinking: "aren't you a little short for a storm trooper?")

[Johnland]

Originally Posted by fridayinla

Photos taken May 26, 2007:

Artisan on Second


Mura




Also, this building at 7th & Olive was recently announced for a condo conversion with retail:

Giannini Place

The Gianni Bldg is absolutely gorgeous. It will make a great condo conversion. It is such a classic. So downtown LA. It looks like it probably was in countless old movies.

[BrandonJXN]

Gianni Place (along with the Roosevelt and Brockman) are such regal buildings. They don't make them like that anymore.

[fridayinla]

New Home for Women's Center

Shift for Service Provider Also Paves Way for $125 Million Housing Project

by Kathleen Nye Flynn
Los Angeles Downtown News

The City Council approved a plan last week to give a new home to the Downtown Women's Center when its current structure makes way for the $125 million Medallion project.

Lisa Watson and Joe Altepeter of the Downtown Women's Center, in front of the Renaissance Building at 434 S. San Pedro St. The DWC will move into the structure in 2009.

The vote comes after a nearly two-and-a-half-year effort by Councilwoman Jan Perry and the Community Redevelopment Agency to move the center, which provides services to homeless women, following the Medallion developer's plans to surround the center with housing and shops.

"When we first started talking to the developer of the Medallion project over three years ago now, I was concerned about having the women live in the middle of a construction site," said Perry, adding that the DWC was looking to expand. "It was a confluence of a lot of really good elements and opportunities."

The arrangement, a complex series of lease agreements, federal grant leniencies, purchases, sales and other red tape cutting, is fairly unusual. It involved transferring the city-owned Renaissance Building to the CRA and then to the DWC while shuffling various debts and contracts.

Now that the agreement is final, progress can start on the Medallion, a massive mixed-use project on the block bounded by Third, Fourth, Los Angeles and Main streets, which plans to break ground this summer.

Expansion and Progress

The Downtown Women's Center, founded in 1978 and located at 325 S. Los Angeles St., offers health and education services along with 47 permanent supportive housing units. It is the only center in Downtown Los Angeles that exclusively serves homeless, mentally ill and drug addicted women.

The center's move to the Renaissance Building, a historic six-story structure at 434 S. San Pedro St., will enable it to expand its services and permanent supportive housing. The new structure will include a mental health and medical clinic for homeless and local women who do not have health insurance.

The new center will also hold 72 permanent supportive housing units, each with its own bathroom and kitchen (currently those facilities are shared). The expansion comes as the number of homeless women and children in Skid Row has increased in recent years, to about 30% of the total population there, according to the DWC.

"This is the next step for our future and we've been very successful in having women permanently housed in the community," said Lisa Watson, executive director of the DWC. "We have been the prototype for other agencies in the United States and this gives us a chance to grow our success."

The Renaissance Building has sat mostly empty and in disrepair for several years. In the 1980s, the government contracted with the Skid Row Development Corporation to manage light manufacturing jobs in the building for the homeless, but the structure needed more than $10 million in renovations to continue operating.

In order to allow the DWC to move in, the federal government had to release the building from that obligation, after which the city turned it over to the CRA. The DWC will then acquire the building from the CRA. The City Council approved the plan on Friday, May 25.

In addition to renovating the ornate façade, the DWC plans to put a year of construction into rehabbing the structure before moving in by late 2009. Plans call for adding a landscaped side yard and increasing the foliage around the building. Architect Brenda Levin, who designed the Center's current building in 1986, will consult on the new construction, said Joe Altepeter, DWC's site director.

A retail space will go into the ground floor of the building and a parking lot next door could eventually become home to an affordable housing project by the CRA.

New Neighbors

The $125 million Medallion project, developed by Saeed Farkhondepour, will include 200 rental units that average 800 square feet, 750 parking spaces and ground floor retail.

The current DWC building will eventually be torn down and the plot will become the main entrance to Medallion's interior parking lot. The first phase of Medallion will break ground in July.

Initially, the project called for wrapping commercial space around three sides of the DWC, Farkhondepour said.

"That was the original plan when we bought the land, but once our residential units came into the picture, the city was eager to have the [DWC] plot be part of our project and to have them move," Farkhondepour said.

The Medallion will be built in phases, allowing the DWC to move into the new building without lapsing services. Farkhondepour will purchase the existing building from the DWC. The price is still being negotiated.

Now, the DWC will be a neighbor of the Little Tokyo Lofts. The center's staff see the new location as a bridge between Downtown's high-end development and social services.

"It's a win-win for all of us," said Watson. "We get a nice building and an opportunity to further our services, and they get a nice new entrance into their project."

[LongBeachUrbanist]

It's great to hear about win-win solutions like this. The Women's Center is a net asset to the Skid Row, and the move will help it better serve the women of Skid Row.

The biggest problem facing Skid Row is the criminal element. Too bad the County continues its practice of releasing its prisoners every night in Downtown, so close to Skid Row.

[colemonkee]

The Coulter-Mandel Building now has a marketing banner on the south side of the building for the apartments. Looks like pre-leasing should be starting soon if it hasn't already. That stretch of 7th Street will be pretty kick ass once that and the Brockman open up. All those people will have Seven Grand right across the street.

[funhaus]

Anybody know what's going on with the Herald Examiner building at 11th and Broadway? This past week I saw demolition happening on its back building/addition at 11th and Hill.

[fridayinla]

Wow, maybe Hearst Corp. is moving forward with that mixed-use project. I don't think we have this project listed on our 1st page, but here are some older articles I dug up for this project:

Dated Aug. 29, 2005: Heralding a New Beginning

Dated Dec. 12, 2005: Developer Tweaks Plan For Herald Examiner

Here's the blurb from the recent development quarterly update:

HERALD EXAMINER

Downtown-based development firm Urban Partners is no longer part of the effort to build a mixed-use project on and around the former home of the Herald Examiner newspaper at 11th Street and Broadway in South Park. Instead Hearst Corp., which has owned the land for nearly 100 years, is taking the lead on the project as it moves through the approvals stage. Plans still call for 40,000 square feet of office space and 30,000 square feet of retail in the lot's historic Julia Morgan-designed Broadway building. The project also includes two new towers: a 24-story, 268-unit structure on the former press building's footprint on Hill Street; and a 37-story, 319-unit high-rise at 120 W. 12th St. No timeline has been established. Architect Brenda Levin is expected to oversee the rehab of the historic building while Thom Mayne's Morphosis will design the new towers.

[SD_Phil]

Well, it's two years old but that was interesting. Here's a blurb from fridayinla's links:

Originally Posted by the article

Developer Urban Partners, which is working in tandem with property owner the Hearst Corporation, said plans are underway to restore and convert the 1914 landmark on the southwest corner of 11th and Broadway into offices and condominiums. As part of the mixed-use development, two new towers would rise on adjacent land owned by Hearst. A 37-story structure will likely feature 330 for-sale units at 120 W. 12th St., while a 23-story building at 1108 S. Hill St. will include 235 condos.

[fridayinla]

OK, now we're getting somewhere:

Herald Examiner Project

Case No. ENV-2005-4654-EIR
State Clearinghouse Number: 2005081146
Council District 9 Central City
Project Address: 1111 S. Broadway; 1108 S. Hill St.; 120 W. 12th St.; Los Angeles, CA 90015

Project Description: This proposed project would involve the rehabilitation of the Herald Examiner Building, a City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, and construction of two new mixed-use buildings in Downtown Los Angeles. The Herald Examiner Building, located at 1111 South Broadway, would be rehabilitated in compliance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation to include 20,000 square feet of retail space, 9,000 square feet of indoor amenities, and 39,725 square feet of office space. The existing Press building, located at 1108 South Hill Street adjacent to the Herald Examiner Building, would be demolished and replaced with a new 24-story building that would feature 2,560 square feet of retail space, 268 condominium units, and 366 parking spaces. An approximately 50-foot wide courtyard would be constructed between the rehabilitated Herald Examiner Building and the newly constructed Hill Street building. A 37-story building is proposed at 120 West 12th Street, a site currently occupied by an asphalt-paved parking lot that would feature 10,000 square feet of retail space, 319 condominium units, and 523 parking spaces.

Construction of the proposed project would be phased and involve separate construction activities and timelines at each of the three project sites. Construction at the Broadway and Hill Street sites is estimated to begin in 2006 and will include abatement of hazards in the existing Herald Examiner and Press buildings, selective demolition within the Herald Examiner Building, demolition of the Press building and then rehabilitation of the Herald Examiner Building consistent with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Building Rehabilitation. Construction at the other two project sites is anticipated to involve excavation for the subterranean parking structures, construction of the parking garages and then construction of the new buildings. Construction at the Hill Street site is estimated to begin either in late 2006 or in early 2007 and be complete in 2009, and construction at the 12th Street site is estimated to begin in 2008 and be complete in 2010.

Taken from: http://cityplanning.lacity.org/EIR/Tocfeir.htm