Archinect - News

RIOS and Foster + Partners-led One Beverly Hills breaks ground in Los Angeles

2024-02-11T11:10:00-05:00

The RIOS and Foster + Partners-led One Beverly Hills development in Los Angeles has broken ground on a 50-month construction phase that will result in one of the country’s most expensive residential developments upon its opening in 2028.

The 17.5-acre development will connect the Beverly Hilton and Waldorf Astoria with two 28- and 31-story condo towers and an 8.5-acre botanical garden designed by RIOS. It had been plagued by criticism over its lack of an affordable housing component. The program allows for up to 255 residential units, 78 hotel suites, and approximately 30,000 square feet of commercial space, along with subterranean parking for up to 1,900 vehicles.

Image: Foster & Partners

Beset by biophilia-lined terraces featuring over 200 unique species of native plants are the focal point and connective tissue of the design, demonstrating that “drought-quality planting doesn’t mean cactus,” according to RIOS’ founder Mark Rios.

“I am really interested in pursuing what a botanic...

Site preparations begin for Norman Foster’s One Beverly Hills

2024-01-03T14:49:00-05:00

Site preparations are underway in Los Angeles in advance of the 50-month construction phase that will bring the Foster + Partners-designed One Beverly Hills residential towers to a plot adjacent to the Beverly Hilton and other area hospitality icons.

Gensler is serving as the project’s executive architect while RIOS has been contracted to deliver the landscaped portion of the design, which occupies the total 17.5-acre site that includes another 8.5-acre botanical garden in compliment of each tower’s biophilic terraces.

The project will be realized at 28- and 31-stories, respectively, making them the tallest design in Beverly Hills since the Bank of America building at 9454 Wilshire Boulevard opened in 1968. According to Urbanize LA, the scheme calls for 255 condominiums, 79 hotel suites, and approximately 30,000-square-feet of commercial space, along with subterranean parking spaces for up to 1,900 vehicles.

Image rendering courtesy DBOX for Alagem Capital.

The project will cost ap...

Montalba is making over Edward Durell Stone's iconic 9720 Wilshire building

2021-11-02T13:56:00-04:00

A Beverly Hills icon is getting a long overdue facelift thanks to a top-notch local firm.

Santa Monica-based Montalba Architects is behind a newly announced renovation that will transform the former Pacific Mercantile Bank building, an eight-story office tower on Wilshire Boulevard by New Formalist master Edward Durell Stone.

Image courtesy Montalba Architects

Stone was the architect of the Ahmanson Center and responsible for several other midcentury commercial developments on Wilshire Boulevard that have become synonymous with the visual landscape of Los Angeles thanks to artists like Ed Ruscha and David Hockney.

Image courtesy Montalba Architects

The building’s characteristic Romanesque facade will remain untouched as the fronting fountain and plaza area are reimagined in order to make space for a “sunken garden” that allows the architects to activate its previously unused basement substructure. Interior renovations will be made using a “reserved palette of materials that harken th...

$2 billion Beverly Hills mixed-use development designed by Foster + Partners approved by city council

2021-06-15T19:04:00-04:00

Last year, plans for One Beverly Hills, a $2 billion mixed-use, high-rise development in Los Angeles, were unveiled. The luxury project is now one step closer to realization following its approval in a 4-1 vote last week by the Beverly Hills City Council.

The development will be one of the largest in the city’s history, spanning 17.4 acres between Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards. The site is currently home to the Beverly Hilton and Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills hotels. Plans for the complex include two high-rise residential buildings containing 303 units, a new hotel with 42 suites and 37 designated residences, and a four-story, approximately 35,000-square-foot pavilion containing retail and dining spaces.

The surroundings of the development would include 8.5 acres of gardens designed by local multi-disciplinary design firm RIOS, with more than half being open to the public. Two one-mile-long walkways will move through the landscape. Additionally, the project includes an under...

Foster + Partners unveils plans for twin condo towers in Beverly Hills

2020-07-01T17:14:00-04:00

A newly unveiled $2 billion development proposal crafted by Foster + Partners, Gensler, and RIOS for developers Alagem Capital Group aims to bring a pair of verdant, balcony-wrapped towers to Beverly Hills.

The project would be situated behind the Waldorf Astoria and Beverly Hilton Hotel sites and would bound the Los Angeles Country Club. In all, the development could render 303 units in addition to an adjacent hotel containing 42 high-end suites and 37 condominiums. The lower levels of the complex would include a retail podium filled with restaurants and shops, The Los Angeles Times reports.

Gensler is serving as Executive Architect for the development, while RIOS will provide landscape architecture services for. Under the current design, the ground level areas will be designed as lush landscapes and will be, according to reports, largely publicly accessible.

The project is slated to span over Merv Griffin Drive, a public street that bisects the project site, with a "landscaped ...

Coronavirus slowdown could push L.A. subway construction six months ahead of schedule

2020-04-02T12:52:00-04:00

A planned Los Angeles County subway extension could see the light of day six months ahead of schedule, as the social and economic shutdown put in place to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus strain prompts authorities to consider consolidating construction activities.

A recent report from Streetsblog indicates that as the volume of pedestrian and vehicle traffic has dropped across the region, authorities in the city of Beverly Hills have worked an agreement with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) that would allow Metro to speed up construction of its forthcoming Purple Line by up to six months.

Map highlighting the section to be closed in red. Image courtesy of City of Beverly Hills.

Though the wealthy enclave has fought tooth and nail to stop or slow down the subway route running below its streets, it now seems that the opportunity to have construction come to fruition at a quicker pace could convince the Beverly Hills City Council to allow f...

Jeff Bezos buys LA's most expensive property for record $165 million

2020-02-13T14:11:00-05:00

Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, the world’s wealthiest person, has purchased a Beverly Hills mansion known as the Warner Estate from media mogul David Geffen for $165 million, a source familiar with the deal said on Wednesday.

The hefty price tag of the new abode for Bezos and his girlfriend Lauren Sánchez is believed to be the highest amount ever paid for a home in the Los Angeles area — even beating the recent record-setting transaction of Bel Air's Chartwell mansion which sold for a meager $150 million.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Bezos also purchased three New York apartments earlier this year at an estimated value of $80 million.

In 2018, the Amazon founder and Washington Post owner also bought this historic 27,000-square-foot D.C. mansion and, according to Washingtonian, hired Barnes Vanze Architects to renovate the "25 bathrooms, 11 bedrooms, five living rooms/lounges, five staircases, three kitchens, two libraries/studies, two workout rooms, two elevators—and a huge ballroom."

Bezos won't be cash-strapped for too long after acquiring these 9.4 acres of prime Beverly Hills real estate. As The Verge calculated, his $131.9 billion net worth makes this purchase the equivalent of spending $75...

Why did a $1 billion mountaintop site in Beverly Hills sell for just $100,000?

2019-08-21T15:30:00-04:00

Touted as the city’s finest undeveloped piece of land, the 157-acre property redefined the luxury market when it listed for a record $1 billion last year. On Tuesday, it sold for a mere $100,000 at a foreclosure auction, a fraction of the $200-million loan outstanding on the property.

The Los Angeles Times digs into the creative financial maneuvering that resulted in the strangely low final purchase price for a 157-acre hilltop site recently billed as the most expensive property in Los Angeles history.

Louis Vuitton's “shoppable museum” pop-up makes a pitstop in Beverly Hills

2019-07-22T18:52:00-04:00

Louis Vuitton X brings together a remarkable collection of early twentieth-century special-order trunks, beautiful art deco perfume bottles and window displays commissioned and designed by Louis Vuitton's grandson Gaston-Louis, iconic Monogram bags reworked by renowned artists and designers such as Karl Lagerfeld, Rei Kawakubo, Cindy Sherman, and Frank Gehry, and original collaborations and commissions by artists including Yayoi Kusama, Richard Prince, and Zaha Hadid.

Fusing art and commerce, “Louis Vuitton X” is a pop-up exhibition currently at the 458 North Rodeo Drive building through September 15 in Beverly Hills. The glitzy pop-up space is a burst of color that showcases 180 items from Louis Vuitton's archives and traces the fashion house's 160-year creative history. Of course, the exhibition features a shopping element to it, where visitors can browse LV's latest “Artycapucines” collection designed in collaboration with six international artists. After its LA stop, the pop-up exhibition will go on a global tour.

Can you recognize these blockbuster movie hotel rooms?

2018-12-26T15:39:00-05:00

Architecture and film have had a longstanding partnership. Many iconic blockbuster hits would not have been the same without the magic of talented set and stage designers. If you're planning your next movie marathon, check out these 7 famous hotel rooms that have dawned the big screen. Thanks to the creative imaginations and talents of architects Jelena Popovic and Barbara Lew, these famous hotel rooms were brought to life.

↓ Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA

From the film Pretty Woman - Image courtesy of Expedia

Staring Julia Roberts and Richard Greer, the film takes place in this Los Angeles hotel. In the film, the onscreen chemistry between Roberts and Greer depicts a classic Cinderella story where two unlikely people fall in love.

↓ Park Hyatt Hotel Tokyo in Tokyo, JP

From the film Lost in Translation - Image courtesy of Expedia

In Sophia Coppola's romantic comedy, Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson display platonic love in the alluring city of Tokyo. As the two s...

Beverly Hills schools want to convince Trump administration to cut funds for L.A. Metro Purple Line extension

2018-10-12T15:11:00-04:00

While the school district had tried repeatedly in court to stop Metro from building the subway underneath the high school’s campus, Korbatov’s “Stop the Purple Threat” campaign takes a different approach: Nab the attention of President Donald Trump and try to convince him to order the withdrawal of federal funding from the Purple Line extension.

School district administrators also helped BHHS students organize a districtwide “walkout” that took place today in protest of the Purple Line extension, whose second phase is already underway. Here are some interesting Twitter updates from LA Times transportation reporter Laura J. Nelson.

MAD's quirky Beverly Hills 'Gardenhouse' tops out

2018-07-05T18:33:00-04:00

MAD Architects, headquartered in Beijing, is making progress on its first U.S. project, Gardenhouse in Beverly Hills (first announced on Archinect in 2015). The playful 18-unit residential project along Wilshire Boulevard just topped out and aims for completion before the end of the year—then expected to sport an enormous wrap-around outdoor living wall facade with native, drought-tolerant succulents and vines.

Image: MAD Architects

"The 'hillside village' offers a variety of different housing typologies – three townhouses, two studios, five villas and eight condominiums – that are arranged to cultivate a private neighborhood feeling in the middle of the city," reads the project description.

Image: MAD Architects

"Individual balconies and patios extend out over an inner courtyard that allows villa residents to at once, enjoy the nature and independence from neighbors. There is also a balance between public and private as the housing appears opaque from the street but reveals a transp...

Beverly Hills wants to provide driverless cars as public transit

2016-04-19T13:15:00-04:00

the city's council voted unanimously to create a program to "develop autonomous vehicles as public transportation." The council's vision is for self-driving vehicles to provide "on-demand, point-to-point transportation," with citizens "requesting a ride using their smartphone." The shuttles wouldn't replace public transportation, but augment it [...] Phase one of the city council's program includes reaching out to companies like Tesla and Google to explore "potential partnerships."

Beverly Hills isn't the only city considering adding on-demand driverless vehicles to its transportation offerings – but given its small size, affluence, and well-maintained road infrastructure, it could be a prime zone for testing municipal adoption of autonomous vehicles.

As an on-demand public transit option, driverless vehicles could also be based on a different fare structure than the surrounding region's bus and train options, which use a fixed rate-per-ride fare, regardless of how far the trip. Theoretically, passenger rates for driverless car transit could be more directly proportional to the length of the trip, as they are for Uber and Lyft currently (although without the surge pricing).

Related on Archinect:

Frank Gehry's unsolicited plan for Beverly Hills mixed-use campus awaits city council agreement

2016-03-02T15:11:00-05:00

Earlier this month, developer Townscape Partners and Gehry Partners presented an unsolicited plan to the Beverly Hills City Council to build a huge mixed-use campus that would include hip office space, a five-star hotel, retail, and a three-acre public park on about seven acres of land...the council is expected to approve an agreement at their meeting tonight that should help this unexpected and enormous project take a big step forward.

You can find the full project staff report here.

More recent news about Frank Gehry:

Mayor Eric Garcetti on Frank Gehry's plans for the LA River: "a cooperative, collaborative, regional approach"

Frank Gehry is the first architect to be awarded the Harvard Arts Medal

Frank Gehry and Maya Lin find their ancestral roots on PBS

Selling Cuba (Gehry's already there)

It's easier now to tear down "historic homes" in Beverly Hills than before – is this progress or folly?

2016-01-19T20:22:00-05:00

Last July, the Beverly Hills City Council voted to modify the city’s historic preservation ordinance, thereby making it easier to demolish buildings that were at one point deemed “historic.” While the City Council understands this a mark of progress—allowing more real estate money, and therefore more revenue, to flow into the city—historically minded citizens believe the modification places architecturally and historically relevant buildings onto a very slippery slope...

Related:

John Lautner hits the silver screen

2015-12-30T17:34:00-05:00

The 1990 documentary "The Spirit in Architecture: John Lautner" screens in Beverly Hills on January 2, and it includes not only dramatic images of the buildings, but also interviews and insights from the builders, owners, and the architect himself.

Like the fine wine of architecture, the work of John Lautner only gets better with age. Whether experienced in exhibition form (the Hammer Museum's 2008 show was a marvelous introduction for those unfamiliar with his canon) to documentary film, Lautner's fearless yet elegant exploration of space and material continues to captivate decades after his death in 1994. What better way to start off 2016?

MAD unveils "hillside village" project for Beverly Hills

2015-06-21T08:00:00-04:00

MAD Architects is making their U.S. residential debut with the unveiling of 8600 Wilshire, which is scheduled to break ground along Wilshire Boulevard in the one and only Beverly Hills this October. Described by the architects like an oasis-like 'hillside village', the stark-white glass villas and lush greenery can easily appeal to the well-to-do 90210 crowd as California's drought persists.

With a site area of 25,900 sq.ft, the mixed-use project consists of a cluster of 18 residential units nestled above a lush green commercial building covered in a "living wall" of California-native succulents and vines. The project 'mimics a small sinuous white hill' so as to complement the rolling landscape of Beverly Hills.

From the street, the villas appear opaque but reveal a transparent façade that faces toward the private garden and neighboring residential units inside. Housing types include three townhouses, five villas, two studios, and eight condominiums, including individual balcony-pa...

SPF:a’s Wallis Annenberg Center recognized at California Preservation Design Awards

2014-10-09T18:49:00-04:00

Since the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts by Studio Pali Fekete Architects (SPF:a) broke ground in 2010, the new arts building continues to gain recognition, most recently at the 31st California Preservation Design Awards. Situated in the heart of sunny Beverly Hills, California, the Wallis Annenberg Center complex also includes the restored and renovated historic 1934 Beverly Hills Post Office building.

More photos and project details on Bustler.

Fuksas chosen to redesign LA's Beverly Center

2012-06-07T13:19:00-04:00

Beating out shortlisted competition including John Friedman Alice Kimm and Brooks+Scarpa, Italian firm Studio Fuksas has been awarded the commission to revamp the Beverly Center, the legendary (not to mention, ahem, aesthetically challenging) high end shopping mall in Beverly Hills.

Beverly Hills adopts historic preservation ordinance

2012-01-12T12:00:00-05:00

In response to the demolition of several famous buildings, the City Council approves rules for tearing down or altering structures older than 45 years and designed by important architects. It also establishes a Cultural Heritage Commission.

Neutra's Kronish House gets a postponement on its demolishment

2011-08-03T18:19:30-04:00

Bowing to community pressure, the owners of Richard Neutra's Kronish House in Beverly Hills have agreed to postpone its demolition until at least Oct. 10 to give preservationists a chance to devise a plan to save the residence. In a related and groundbreaking action, the Beverly Hills City Council early Wednesday asked the community's Planning Commission to devise a historic-preservation ordinance.

Previously.

'nother Neutra slated to be demo'd

2011-07-25T14:55:17-04:00

The [Kronish House]... has been "terribly neglected, but the bones are still there," said Dion Neutra, an architect who teamed up with his late father, Richard, on the project. "The new owner thinks it would be more valuable to tear it down and have empty land."