LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 3.0

[BrandonJXN]

Originally Posted by JDRCRASH

Nice job colemonkee!

By the way, Tower 3 on Concerto is 30 stories.
It even says so in the last Downtown News quarterly update.
It is quite amusing, though; because that would mean that I AM intelligent, and know my facts and where to get them, contrary to what some may dramatically claim.

Anyways, I like the development occurring along the westside. Hopefully Downtown can imitate with the construction of the grand avenue project.

*sigh*

The Downtown News quarterly is notorious for being wrong.

Concerto = two 27 story towers and one 7 story building. Phase one is one 27 story building and the 7 story building. Phase 2 is the other 27 story building.

[bjornson]

Wikipedia.org is also notorious for its 90% accuracy.

Oh, and the LAPD headquarters is surprisingly better looking than I imagined.

[colemonkee]

^ Thanks, ThreeHundred.

JDR, it helps to do your homework, dude. Douglas Hanson - the lead architect on the Concerto project from the LA office of DeStefano + Partners - emailed me awhile back confirming the 27 story figure, as well as the 335 ft. height. A lot of traditional media outlets - the Downtown News being the grossest offender - routinely get figures like heights and story counts wrong. It's not something that's exclusive to LA, either. It happens in almost every other city.

[ladowntowner]

Originally Posted by ThreeHundred

*sigh*

The Downtown News quarterly is notorious for being wrong.

Concerto = two 27 story towers and one 7 story building. Phase one is one 27 story building and the 7 story building. Phase 2 is the other 27 story building.

^This is also my understanding, ThreeHundred, confirmed from multiple sources.

I swear, this last offense is so blatant as to be considered baiting. Some certain individual - who I shall not name - should be, at the very least, suspended for this continued conduct.

[BrandonJXN]

Didn't Astani say something along the lines of when the underground parking is complete that's when tower 2 will start?

[colemonkee]

Originally Posted by yeah215

Sorry if I missed this, but I have a couple of questions. Once the new Police HQ is occupied, what then happens to Parker Center? I assume it will be torn down because of all of its structural problems. Does the city plan on building a new office building there, maybe reduce the the amount of office space they lease? Is it a potential site for some new County offices and courts to expand the County Mall?

Jan Perry set aside some funds last year to study what to do with the Parker Center. Specifically she wanted to study costs and feasibility of tearing it down and using the land for new City and/or County offices. I'm not sure how far that study has proceeded, or how close we are to the outcome, but I'm certain we're very far away from any funding for any new buildings.

Originally Posted by yeah215

What about the Los Angeles Mall? Is there a way to get rid of that and use it for other civic purposes? What is the deal with the County's Hall of Records and Law Library? Both of those buildings look so run down and dilapidated. Are they really needed in their current form anymore in a downtown setting? Now there is the internet and whatnot?

In an ideal world, it would be great to see all the buildings in between City Hall and Music Center go. The park would really be wonderful then, and much larger and more substantial. To the extent some buildings are still incorporated into the park, they should be be short (I'm thinking of buildings with the massing of the Central Library). Some of the other larger buildings can be relocated. My feeling is that most of them need to be rebuilt anyway. Some of the other open areas in the civic center could be used for these purposes.... the old parker center site, the parking lot around the old Hall of Justice, the LA Mall site. Opening up those three, plus allowing a couple smaller buildings on the edges of the park would make the Civic Center feel more cohesive. I don't like the way the park will potentially come up right to the front of the Criminal Courts building. The massing seems all wrong and I think it will feel really awkward.

As for the rest of the buildings, a lot speculation abounds, but no one really knows for sure what is planned. I do know that you're preaching to the choir when it comes to removing the old Courthouse and the Hall of Records. That has been discussed at length on these forums and to some degree in the City government, but to my knowledge, no official decision has been made to tear these buildings down.

I would wager that it's not likely to happen anytime soon with the current projected shortfalls in the City budget.

[colemonkee]

Fixed the broken images on the front page. Image Shack likes to keep me on my toes like that.

It's Saturday night. Time to start drinkin!

[LA311]

The first signs of life have appeared for the new restaurant @ the base of LUMA in South Park. "HYGGE" described as a european restaurant and lounge, with a danish bakery. Unfortunately they're also promoting this space as a rental for special events, so I highly doubt we'll actually see anything happening here anytime soon.


Walked across the street to check out the progress at Bottle Rock

[Easy]

Originally Posted by ThreeHundred

Didn't Astani say something along the lines of when the underground parking is complete that's when tower 2 will start?

The second tower was canceled a while back. Did it get revived?

[BrandonJXN]

^ I think that was when Concerto was just a big hole in the ground with no activity for 8 months. I heard that either tower 2 will start when the parking garage is finished or when phase 1 is complete.

[funhaus]

Originally Posted by LA311

The first signs of life have appeared for the new restaurant @ the base of LUMA in South Park. "HYGGE" described as a european restaurant and lounge, with a danish bakery. Unfortunately they're also promoting this space as a rental for special events, so I highly doubt we'll actually see anything happening here anytime soon.


Walked across the street to check out the progress at Bottle Rock

From an unrelated site, apparently Hygge means the following:

The Danish word Hygge (hu-gah) is a feeling or mood that comes from taking genuine pleasure in making ordinary everyday things simply extraordinary; whether it's using real lights on a Christmas tree or breaking out the good wine when friends come over. It's about owning things you only truly love or that inspire, being present in yourself and your life, putting effort into your home without being Martha Stewart or buying a bed in a bag. It's about being conscious and authentic from home to work to friends to celebrations and making all events {no matter how big or small, mundane or exciting} matter. Words like cosiness, security, familiarity, comfort, reassurance, fellowship, simpleness and living well are often used to describe the idea of Hygge.

[hi123]

Any renderings of what will replace the MJ higgins gallery?

[RAlossi]

I was at Salon Eleven for a haircut yesterday and those signs weren't up - they must have put them up yesterday afternoon!

We spoke with the owner a while back, and he was having to jump through hoops trying to get his alcohol permit, like usual.

Good to see some movement now, even if it is just signs =)

Originally Posted by LA311

The first signs of life have appeared for the new restaurant @ the base of LUMA in South Park. "HYGGE" described as a european restaurant and lounge, with a danish bakery. Unfortunately they're also promoting this space as a rental for special events, so I highly doubt we'll actually see anything happening here anytime soon.


Walked across the street to check out the progress at Bottle Rock

[fflint]

Stay on topic: projects and construction in downtown Los Angeles

Stay within the Terms of Service: don't troll, fling gratuitous personal insults, or otherwise disrupt this thread

Anybody running afoul of forum rules will be dealt with harshly. Enough is enough.

[colemonkee]

fflint, thank you for getting this bad boy back on topic. The gyrating donut is a welcome sight for a forum plagued by unnecessary bickering.

Now to get this forum further back on topic, it was a beautiful day, so I took a walk. The following digital representations of downtown somehow magically appeared in my camera...


717 Flower
They're starting to frame the 12th floor. So another 2/3 left to go.



The view west down 9th Street. There's a kind of an interesting step down effect between TCW, ProAmerica and Market Lofts that's almost symmetrical. 717 Flower - which you can see starting to peek through - will interrupt that, but it will add a whole different dimension of color with it's green glass.




Concerto
Not the best time of day to shoot this guy (in shadow), but you can see the third floor frame starting to go up.




Hanover Tower
Looks like paint tests on the crown. I really hope they paint the crown. That unfinished stucco looks, well, unfinished. It also looks like they might be installing some exterior light fixtures underneath the "hat".




Evo
Framing the mechanical penthouse at the top, so aside from the helipad, Evo is topped out. Glass has fully reached the top setback, at least on the east side (pictured).




LA Live
From Figueroa and Olympic:



From Figueroa and 11th. Not much visual progress from the last photo update, but what the hell...



There's a temporary stage set up in the plaza for the Grammy's, where the Foo Fighters will play tonight. And apparently the LAPD is prepared for the shenanigans and tomfoolery that will inevitably ensue.
(I really wanted a smiley with some reflective aviator sunglasses chewing on some straw, but the gavel one will have to do)




Medallion
Foundation work starting to move up. The hole is much deeper than it looks in the photo due to the angle.

[colemonkee]

I also got some shots of select conversion projects and retail developments.

Chapman
Ground level finishes at the Chapman Building came out really nice, and Kelly's Coffee & Fudge is already starting to build out their space on 8th. I have a colleague who bought a pad here, and he tells me that the places are more or less ready, but that move-ins won't be for another month or so because the builder is (surprise! surprise!!) waiting on the City for occupancy approvals.




Rowan Lofts
Rowan Lofts are a bit further behind, but visual progress is being made. Still, don't expect move-ins to happen for another few months.




Regent Theater
This was announced a while ago on Blog Downtown, but Ed Fuentes' digital mural went up on the Regent Theater. Let's hope this signals more events/screenings in the near future.



Also, Ed Fuentes captured an absolutely amazing shot of the MJ Higgins Gallery demolition.


Tranquility Base
If I have any issue with the exterior seating of Tranquility Base, it's that the fence should be about half as tall as it is to allow passersby to have a better view of the activity inside. Instead they went with a walled garden approach which makes sense given the "tranquility" theme, but it isolates it from the street.

[yeah215]

Thanks for the pics.

So when is the Hanover Tower expected to open?

[BrandonJXN]

Awesome pics monkee.

You should've stuck around Nokia. You could've shot pictures of Rihanna's...umm...umbrella..ella..ella.

And Amy Crackhouse is always good too. Despite the fact that she looks like a drugged up horse.

[DowntownCharlieBrown]

Great pics colemonkee

It's great seeing those old buildings getting a good cleaning.

[Quixote]

Awesome pics, colemonkee!