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Downtown LA skyscraper with cantilevered glass-bottom swimming pools gets thumbs-up from city planning commission

2019-09-13T15:02:00-04:00

Plans for what could become one of Downtown’s most unique-looking skyscrapers received unanimous approval today from the city’s planning commission. With cantilevered swimming pools jutting out of its upper floors, the tower proposed for across the street from Pershing Square has been said to look like an in-progress game of Jenga. Commissioner Samantha Millman called it an “ambitious and audacious project.”

The Arquitectonica-designed 53-story hotel and condo tower with its precariously cantilevering glass-bottom swimming pools (hey, it's LA!) first appeared on Archinect last fall and quickly became the subject of much debate.

Additional renderings were released in May this year.

Image courtesy of Arquitectonica

If all goes as planned, JMF Development Co. aims to have the 784-foot tower completed by 2023.

New renders of a tower planned across the Pershing Square

2019-05-15T13:54:00-04:00

The 5th and Hill development, slated for an L-shaped property wrapping the historic Pershing Square Building, is a product of real estate investment firm JMF Development Co. Plans call for the construction of a 53-story, 784-foot-tall building which could feature either 1) 160 condominiums or 2) a combination of 31 condominiums and a 190-room hotel. Both use options include a mix of restaurant space and amenities, with parking to be located in a five-level podium and two subterranean levels.

The Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council's Planning and Land Use Committee is holding a public meeting on the 21st of May, where one of the projects discussed will be the proposed 53-story tower, new images of which have recently been made public.

The mixed-use structure is designed by Arquitectonica and features an array of protruding masses that begin as balconies, and increase in size to become cantilevered glass-bottom pools toward the top of the tower.

Image courtesy of Arquitectonica

The project is estimated to be completed in 2023.

Arquitectonica designs a 53-story Jenga-like tower near LA's Pershing Square

2018-11-05T13:49:00-05:00

JMF Development Co. [...] hopes to construct a 53-story tower on the vacant, L-shaped lot which wraps the historic structure. [...] Arquitectonica is designing the proposed 784-foot-tall glass-and-steel tower, which is highlighted by a collection of cantilevered, glass-bottom pools for residents on the building's upper levels. While some of the protrusions would extend over the Pershing Square Building, none would hover above the public right-of-way.

Image: JMF Development Co., via urbanize.la.

A rather dramatic example of the stacked-boxes scheme might go up at 5th and Hill, near Pershing Square, in Downtown Los Angeles soon.

Designed by Arquitectonica, JMF Development Co. proposes the 53-story tower with its fiercely protruding glass-bottom swimming pools as two potential options: few condominiums + hotel/restaurant if signs of a lurking next recession became clearer vs. plenty of condos + ground-floor retail space if the economic outlook stays strong.