LOS ANGELES | METRO Project Rundown 2.0 (non-downtown)

[Flavius Josephus]

Some good CEQA litigation news, for a change, out of Westwood: http://www.latimes.com/local/educati...022-story.html

[Munchitup]

Here is an update from the Playhouse District in Pasadena, taken today by me on my phone (so please excuse the picture quality). The two projects seen in the photos are the Playhouse Plaza and Union Village.

At the intersection of Green and El Molino looking north:


Looking east at the corner of Colorado and El Molino:



Looking south across Colorado Blvd:


Looking south from the Target parking structure:


Union Village is mostly a hole in the ground at this point (Playhouse Plaza seen in the background):


Lots of parking lots along Union north of Colorado Blvd.


As a bonus, here is another poor-quality picture from Arroyo Parkway, no idea what they are building here but it is across the street from the Whole Foods. Here is the street view.

[caligrad]

Originally Posted by Flavius Josephus

That's the city's general policy, and with the density bonus ordinance, most multifamily developments include an affordable component in order to get increased height/FAR or reduced parking incentives. LA hasn't gone as far as some cities in the region that mandate a certain percentage affordable in any multifamily development. But with the housing shortage getting as bad as it is, they'll take any affordable housing they can get these days.

And most of the housing you see along the 105 isn't strictly affordable housing, in the sense of being designated for people of below a certain percentage of area median income - it's either market-rate housing in areas where the market rate is relatively low because the neighborhood sucks or RSO housing where rent increases are controlled but upon vacancy the rent can be raised to the market rate.

I was specifically talking about the 2 sets of affordable housing projects along the 105. The first covers about a mile long and a mile wide of housing blocks on imperial and sits between central and Compton ave and the other sits on imperial and Mona blvd. examples of affordable housing at its worse.

Before the 105 was there, before It was a bad area, or not nearly as bad as it is now, ive seen pictures of the area and its barely recognizable. a really good part of the city back in the day.

the city allowed for the construction of them and now the drag the entire neighborhoods around them down. I promise you if both sets of projects were torn down and everybody dispersed across the city, those areas would change drastically and quickly. Both projects are literally in the center of the roughest areas of LA.

The projects in Wilmington are strictly affordable housing/low income housing, no matter how its worded its still low income housing. Wilmington has always been a city that had its good years and bad years but now I have a feeling its going to see a lot more bad years.

Public housing/affordable housing/low income housing = always a bad situation in the long run and the city knows this. The reason why other cities stopped building them.

[Flavius Josephus]

Originally Posted by caligrad

I was specifically talking about the 2 sets of affordable housing projects along the 105. The first covers about a mile long and a mile wide of housing blocks on imperial and sits between central and Compton ave and the other sits on imperial and Mona blvd. examples of affordable housing at its worse.

Before the 105 was there, before It was a bad area, or not nearly as bad as it is now, ive seen pictures of the area and its barely recognizable. a really good part of the city back in the day.

the city allowed for the construction of them and now the drag the entire neighborhoods around them down. I promise you if both sets of projects were torn down and everybody dispersed across the city, those areas would change drastically and quickly. Both projects are literally in the center of the roughest areas of LA.

The projects in Wilmington are strictly affordable housing/low income housing, no matter how its worded its still low income housing. Wilmington has always been a city that had its good years and bad years but now I have a feeling its going to see a lot more bad years.

Public housing/affordable housing/low income housing = always a bad situation in the long run and the city knows this. The reason why other cities stopped building them.

I think the 105 corridor going downhill was more related to the decline of the aerospace industry (and industry in general), but yeah, it's well-recognized that concentrating poverty as they did in 1940s housing projects along the City of LA portion of the 105 is a bad idea. In many cities, they're knocking down the projects and starting again. In LA, I think they'd often like to do that, but the housing crisis means that there isn't a way to provide enough affordable housing any other way. HACLA haven't built a true new public housing project in a long time.

And yeah, Imperial Courts and Nickerson Gardens are notoriously terrible public housing projects. But if you're looking along the full length of the 105--admittedly, often not part of the City of LA--most of the housing (and most of the affordable housing) you'll see won't be Housing Authority projects. The only construction HACLA's doing now is--like here--rebuilding a few old properties it owns like Dana Strand and Jordan Downs. But the vast majority of affordable housing development today is non-profit housing, not true public housing. HACLA owns a total of 9300 units, a tiny fraction of the City's housing.

[LAsam]

In Century City news, the Westfield tower has green fencing going up around it and appears to be mostly, if not completely vacated. I think they may be getting ready for demolition and will keep everyone posted. Also, the big dirt lot in the middle of Century City, which I believe is 1950 Ave of the Stars, has had some construction equipment on site performing demo work on the at-grade portion of the site along Ave of the Stars. They also removed the public notice sign from the green fencing that has been up for forever so maybe they are in the preliminary stages of site work?

10000 Santa Monica appears to be moving along nicely... any new photos?

[circuitfiend]

^^^

Re 10000 SaMo: They're pouring walls today. Additional excavation yesterday.

I'll take a snap or two and post later this weekend. I also have additional progress pics from the last several weeks that haven't been posted.

[Wally West]

Thanks for the Pasadena update, Munchitup! I've been really curious on the progress of those projects.

[LAsam]

Confirmed at lunch today that the green fencing around the Westfield tower is indeed in preparation for demolition.

[Flavius Josephus]

Originally Posted by LAsam

In Century City news, the Westfield tower has green fencing going up around it and appears to be mostly, if not completely vacated. I think they may be getting ready for demolition and will keep everyone posted. Also, the big dirt lot in the middle of Century City, which I believe is 1950 Ave of the Stars, has had some construction equipment on site performing demo work on the at-grade portion of the site along Ave of the Stars. They also removed the public notice sign from the green fencing that has been up for forever so maybe they are in the preliminary stages of site work?

10000 Santa Monica appears to be moving along nicely... any new photos?

Is the Westfield project this downsized tower idea? http://www.westfield.com/centurycity...velopment/faq/

[ChelseaFC]

Originally Posted by Wally West

Thanks for the Pasadena update, Munchitup! I've been really curious on the progress of those projects.

There are also quite a few hotel projects in Pasadena in progress or coming in the near future.

Residence Inn on Walnut
Constance Hotel near Lake
YWCA Building Kimpton Boutique
Hyatt Place at Paseo
Colorado and Hill
Colorado and Holliston

[caligrad]

Originally Posted by Flavius Josephus

I think the 105 corridor going downhill was more related to the decline of the aerospace industry (and industry in general), but yeah, it's well-recognized that concentrating poverty as they did in 1940s housing projects along the City of LA portion of the 105 is a bad idea. In many cities, they're knocking down the projects and starting again. In LA, I think they'd often like to do that, but the housing crisis means that there isn't a way to provide enough affordable housing any other way. HACLA haven't built a true new public housing project in a long time.

And yeah, Imperial Courts and Nickerson Gardens are notoriously terrible public housing projects. But if you're looking along the full length of the 105--admittedly, often not part of the City of LA--most of the housing (and most of the affordable housing) you'll see won't be Housing Authority projects. The only construction HACLA's doing now is--like here--rebuilding a few old properties it owns like Dana Strand and Jordan Downs. But the vast majority of affordable housing development today is non-profit housing, not true public housing. HACLA owns a total of 9300 units, a tiny fraction of the City's housing.

Ah I see what you were saying now. But yeah. Concentrating these in a single area is never bueno. ugh. Horrible.

[blackcat23]

Dream Hotel update:

http://buildinglosangeles.blogspot.c...eam-hotel.html

[blackcat23]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0b-irn21W2...0/DSC03509.JPG

Construction crane up at 10000 Santa Monica Blvd



As LAsam mentioned last week, protective barriers are going up around Gateway West/1801 Avenue of the Stars. Looks like demolition will start soon.

[Illithid Dude]

Rip a great building from a great architect. I'm not happy to see this one go down.

[POLA]

Man, LA must have some extremely restrictive zoning because this constantly happens; tearing down multistory buildings only to replace them with multistory buildings.

[Wally West]

Originally Posted by POLA

Man, LA must have some extremely restrictive zoning because this constantly happens; tearing down multistory buildings only to replace them with multistory buildings.

Yeah, it seems like an incredible waste of a nice building. Especially since LA is full of strip malls.

[Flavius Josephus]

Originally Posted by Wally West

Yeah, it seems like an incredible waste of a nice building. Especially since LA is full of strip malls.

Strip malls in low-value locations. Zoning/neighborhood opposition is part of it; another part is that clustering makes land in hubs like DTLA, Century City, and Santa Monica far, far more valuable than the land those strip malls sit on. And with the office market still struggling, office buildings that can't be adapted into other uses will often be more valuable as development sites because of the meager rents they bring in in their current form.

[Steve2726]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

Rip a great building from a great architect. I'm not happy to see this one go down.

Small consolation but it's twin remains just across the street.

[caligrad]

Originally Posted by Steve2726

Small consolation but it's twin remains just across the street.

Yup. Its literal twin is across the street. its complete identical twin. The only reason why I don't mind seeing this one go. LA needs more diversity, especially in century city where most of the high-rises are twins. so to sacrifice one to get something totally different I will accept. We are starting to become the city of twins and its getting annoying.

[Flavius Josephus]

From GlobeSt, signs that San Pedro may be hotting up a bit: http://www.globest.com/news/12_975/l...4M-351874.html