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

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Originally Posted by LAofAnaheim

Why is it "this or that"? There WILL be a HRT station at Wilshire/Fairfax and connected to the Purple Line, what's wrong with a trolley in addition to that?

Why is transit always in competition with itself, let's support both projects!

exactly right. they work together just as Districtdirt said

[bobcat]

I like the trolley idea. Right now Museum Row, Grove/Farmers Market, and Beverly Center are all close to each other, but not quite close enough to walk easily between them. A trolley would help to bridge the gaps and unify the district.

[Quixote]

Trolley buses are lame. That's what we'll probably get, because it's the cheapest and easiest to operate.

[brudy]

I love the idea of a some kind of interconnecting transit, it would be awesome for that whole area and for tourism. I'd definitely prefer a surface streetcar/rail thingie, but I think a trolley bus might work, if a bit budget. I think if you look at the DASH buses, locals know them, but tourists do not (and never mind issues about who knows what routes run when). If it does become a bus trolley, it needs to be distinctive but efficient.

Really I'd prefer a monorail!

[ByTheBay]

I think the whole West Hollywood, Melrose District, Miracle Mile area is in major need of a streetcar system that goes in a loop similar to the one proposed for DTLA. Although mainly suburban in nature, this area just has so much commercial and street activity to entirely rely on cars and buses. The area west of La Brea, South of Sunset, East of Doheny and North of Wilshire (plus Hollywood and The Golden Triangle) is sort of LA's version of "Midtown" and there needs to be a better way of getting people around within this area. The trolley at The Grove is too slow for street traffic but the idea to connect The Grove with Beverly Center and LACMA is a no brainer, but I think they need to consider including Melrose Ave, Santa Monica Blvd and Sunset Blvd in the loop.

[Illithid Dude]

Loop streetcars are incredibly impractical. You're pretty much screwed if where you want to go isn't in the direction the streetcar is heading. This kind of thing only really works as a valid mode of transportation if the streetcar is two way.

[ByTheBay]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

Loop streetcars are incredibly impractical. You're pretty much screwed if where you want to go isn't in the direction the streetcar is heading. This kind of thing only really works as a valid mode of transportation if the streetcar is two way.

Not if the loop isn't that big, the area I described is only about 3 x 3 miles and the streetcar wouldn't need to go from one end to the other, just reach some key destination points. If you have one that goes in a clockwise rotation down Fairfax, turns on Wilshire up San Vicente, then turn again on Sunset down Holloway into Santa Monica back to Fairfax, you'll have a system that connects The Grove/Farmers Market, Museum Row, Beverly Center/Robertson/Cedars, Boystown/Sunset Strip and Melrose/Fairfax within a mere 6-7 mile loop.

[DistrictDirt]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

Loop streetcars are incredibly impractical. You're pretty much screwed if where you want to go isn't in the direction the streetcar is heading. This kind of thing only really works as a valid mode of transportation if the streetcar is two way.

It depends on the width of the loop. Portland's downtown streetcar and the future DTLA streetcar are both loops, but they are only 1 block wide for most of their length. So even if the stop nearest you is headed the wrong direction, you can just walk a block over and catch the other side of the loop.

The southernmost part of the DTLA streetcar route flares out to 6 blocks wide which screws up this strategy, but I guess concessions had to be made in order to include LA Live in the route.


Portland Streetcar


L.A. Streetcar

[Steve2726]

There's glass installed already on the east side of the Old Spaghetti Factory tower. Sorry I didn't get a photo, was in a moving vehicle. Looks good so far, and with the massive Emerson College glass wall across the street, driving west down Sunset from the 101 feels totally different now.

[Munchitup]

I too have no pics, but the buildings in the Ranch 99 center near Sunset and Western have all been demolished and barriers have been put up for the future Target.

I believe it is a hotel that is going into the narrow lot north of Mosaic Church and south of the Hollywood Women's Club on La Brea - it has just about reached ground level.

Lastly, 1800 Whitley off of Yucca Street is just about finished up, the exterior is complete and looks much nicer than this rendering (though lots of stucco).

IMO the biggest improvement with this lot is that it drastically widened the sidewalks along Yucca Street, plus cleaned up all the detritus that had collected over who-knows-how-long.

[mdiederi]

30 photos of the model for the new LACMA
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2013/0..._miniature.php

... the Zumthor building would have non-traditional heating and cooling and be covered in "the largest solar farm in an urban environment." The other really radical part is that there's very little storage--most of LACMA's collection would be on display in one form or another in the new building.

[blackcat23]

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2013/0...ial_towers.php

Here Are Designs For Wyndham SaMo's 3 Controversial Towers

by Eve Bachrach

Renderings for the revamped Wyndham Santa Monica at the Pier are out, showing that controversial three-tower design that freaked everyone out when it was announced last year. The Holiday Inn-turned-Wyndham hired Venice-based architects Jerde Partnership (they did the Santa Monica Place update a couple years ago) to design the redevelopment, and here's what they've come up with: the three towers at Ocean Avenue, Colorado Avenue, and Main Street will step up in height from west to east. The shortest will be five stories and the tallest 15 stories, coming to either 174 or 195 feet. Each tower will have a viewing deck on top, and they'll have a total 211 hotel rooms and 25 residential units.

When we last heard from this project in March, a city planning commissioner was asking the hotel owner when he was going to give up plans for "so large a development on the site." Not yet, apparently! But city opposition hasn't wavered--earlier this week, three councilmembers proposed that Santa Monica pause discussions on any of the three contentious downtown hotels in the works: this one, the Frank Gehry-designed Ocean Avenue Project, and the Fairmont Miramar renovations. It just needs support from one more councilmember when it comes up for a vote next week.

[mdiederi]

Hour-long audio discussion with Peter Zumthor and Michael Govan about the new LACMA design.
http://snd.sc/1bd6n5U
The first 30 minutes is sort of a review of his other work, then they talk about LACMA.

Found the link in this article:
http://www.architectmagazine.com/exh...um-of-art.aspx

[blackcat23]

Not sure if this has been posted before, but this is the design for the office building that Sunset Bronson Studios wants to put up. 13 stories and 200 feet tall.



http://cityplanning.lacity.org/eir/S...Aesthetics.pdf

[Wally West]

Wow, that's one nice looking office tower. Nothing too special but it would make a big impact on this part of Sunset. I can't wait to see this part of Sunset in a few years with this office tower, Emerson College, and the Old Spaghetti Tower (I forgot the actual name).

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

i really like it. any idea of a timeline?

[blackcat23]

i really like it. any idea of a timeline?

The DEIR said completion was expected in 2016 after a 26-35 month construction period, so it looks like they're shooting for groundbreaking next year.

Originally Posted by Steve2726

There's glass installed already on the east side of the Old Spaghetti Factory tower.

There's not much installed yet, but it's definitely there. Now working on the 10th level above ground.

[colemonkee]

From the rendering it's difficult to tell if the Sunset Bronson Studios office tower sits only on that corner surface lot or if it's going to encroach on the two story white colonial style building that's just west of it. I kind of like that building and hope they keep it. It's a window into Hollywood's past life. But the tower looks nice enough.

[bobbyv]

Originally Posted by colemonkee

From the rendering it's difficult to tell if the Sunset Bronson Studios office tower sits only on that corner surface lot or if it's going to encroach on the two story white colonial style building that's just west of it. I kind of like that building and hope they keep it. It's a window into Hollywood's past life. But the tower looks nice enough.

I hope so as well, I really like that building, I doubt the preservationists would allow this developer to demolish that building anyhow, but from looking at that rendering it's a bit confusing because it shows the KTLA antenna west of the proposed building which is east of the white colonial building you're talking about.

[blackcat23]

The KTLA antenna is being relocated to the Bronson side of the lot, which will allow the new office building to directly abut the Sunset/Van Ness corner.



The colonial style building looks like it's safe, based on the diagram.