Archinect - News

Frank Gehry's transformative Colburn School expansion will break ground in April

2024-02-20T19:14:00-05:00

An official groundbreaking date for Gehry Partners' $335 million Colburn School campus expansion has been set in downtown Los Angeles nearly six years after the project, now dubbed the Colburn Center, was announced in unison with collaborators Nagata Acoustics and TheaterDNA.

Site preparations and other preliminary construction will begin soon on the project, which will yield a total of 100,000 square feet worth of new performance, rehearsal, and education spaces, including a 1,000-seat concert hall, 100-seat theater, and four new dance studios. A special groundbreaking ceremony will take place on April 5th. The Colburn School says they expect construction to reach “substantial completion” by the end of Q1 2027.

View from Hill Street West towards the dance school entrance, dance studios, and public garden. Image: Courtesy of Frank O. Gehry & Gehry Partners, LLP

View East from Olive Street towards the entrance to the concert hall. Image: Courtesy of Frank O. Gehry & Gehry Partners, L...

LA City Council orders graffiti removal on infamous unfinished Oceanwide Plaza towers

2024-02-12T13:33:00-05:00

City Council Members in Los Angeles have issued a mandate to owners of the graffiti-tagged Oceanview Plaza development in Downtown to remove the artwork weeks after its unfinished exterior became a national news item and the latest flash point in a debate over the citywide housing crisis that has lingered for a number of years.

By a vote of 14-0, Council Members approved Kevin de León’s motion calling for the city to foot the bill for cleaning up the stalled $1 billion towers if China-based developer Oceanwide fails to meet their February 17th deadline for removal. (CoStar first reported on the motion this weekend h/t Bizow.com.)

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chop ‘em Down Films (@chopemdownfilms)

The internet sensation was covered in tags last month by artists apparently inspired by an early December operation in downtown Miami and able to bypass the security detail on site, which has been embroiled in a payment dispute with developers since last ye...

Koichi Takada Architects-designed Los Angeles tower moves forward

2022-02-04T15:20:00-05:00

A proposed Downtown high-rise with a design inspired by California's redwood trees has taken a key step forward, following the publication of a Sustainable Communities Environmental Assessment for the project.

Designed by Koichi Takada Architects, with MVE + Partners serving as architect of record, and RIOS as landscape architect, the 40-story tower located at the southwest corner of 11th and Hill streets in the South Park neighborhood will replace a two-story warehouse. The glass and steel building will include 319 condominiums, 160 Transient Occupancy Residential Structures (TORS) units, 3,429 square feet of restaurant space, and 390 parking spaces.

Previously on Archinect: A sculptural Downtown Los Angeles tower forges ahead

The developers have previously announced their plan to complete construction of the tower in 2025, which, according to Urbanize Los Angeles, would require breaking ground by late 2022.

The Los Angeles Business Council's 51st Architectural Awards highlights noteworthy LA projects and Frank Gehry as the inaugural LA Community Legacy Award recipient

2021-11-10T12:05:00-05:00

Los Angeles has welcomed several new projects, adding to the city's vibrant and robust lineup of architectural icons. On October 26, the Los Angeles Business Council (LABC) announced the winning projects for the 51st Architectural Awards. Held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel's Wilshire Garden, the gala welcomed local government officials, Angelinos, LA-based principals, and design teams.

According to LABC, hundreds of project submissions were entered in Education, Mixed-Use Projects, Innovation & Technology, Preservation, and more. Mary Leslie, president of the Los Angeles Business Council, shared: "This year's winners break the mold for how creative, elegant design can build a better future for our city." She also commented on Frank Gehry and his longstanding contributions to the city. Gehry was awarded the organization's inaugural LA Community Legacy Award. "Visionaries like the great Frank Gehry show us how architecture and development can help celebrate and reinvent LA's rich legac...

One of LA’s top mayoral candidates wants to create a hub for affordable housing with an updated Civic Center development plan

2021-10-04T16:59:00-04:00

A stalled plan that would have added over 3 million square feet of office space to Downtown LA has gotten a second life thanks to a post-pandemic reimagining that seeks to address a statewide shortage of affordable housing.

The updated Civic Center Master Development Plan (CCMDP) proposed by mayoral hopeful Kevin de Leon would reverse the numbers in the previously approved plan from 2017, adding more than three times the amount of housing called for in the original while reducing the amount of planned office space by about two thirds.

California is under the gun to add over 1.8 million new units of housing by 2025 to keep up with demands, which so far have outpaced supply to the point where the state has now moved to ban single-family zoning in an effort to boost higher density development. LA itself has said it wants to add 25,000 units to the city in the same time period, and de Leon’s motion would go a long way in helping to meet those demands while at the same time consolidatin...

DTLA 2040 rezoning plan gets one step closer to Los Angeles City Council approval

2021-09-27T15:15:00-04:00

After a pair of marathon hearings, the Los Angeles City Planning Commission has amended and approved the draft DTLA 2040 plan, sending the proposed rezoning of the city's Downtown core on to the City Council for consideration next.

The area has been particularly beset by the pandemic, which is being seen more and more as a potential hub for housing in the city (and state) whose political landscape is increasingly shaped by affordability issues.

Ten new land use designations, proposed under the DTLA 2040 plan for Downtown Los Angeles, will establish baselines and universal building standards in the expanded area, which will accommodate approximately 20% of the anticipated residential growth that could add capacity for 175,000 additional residents to the area in just under two decades.

The plan would eliminate parking requirements for developers as well as scrapping much of a decades-old TFAR program. Urbanize LA has more on the proposed plan’s details here.

LA's iconic US Bank Tower sold to NYC developer

2020-09-22T14:49:00-04:00

Silverstein Properties closed on its $430 million deal to buy US Bank Tower, an iconic Downtown Los Angeles property whose purchase price was far below initial expectations. [...] In a statement, chairman Larry Silverstein said: “I believe in the future of Downtown Los Angeles.”

The 73-story US Bank Tower, designed by Henry N. Cobb of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, was once the tallest building west of the Mississippi River until the recently completed Wilshire Grand Center in Los Angeles and later the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco took over that title.

The 36-foot-long glass 'SkySlide' was added on the outside of the tower's 70th and 69th floors in 2016.

Olympic Tower, a flashy new Downtown LA skyscraper, hopes to leave its mark on the city's skyline

2019-10-21T19:02:00-04:00

Plans for a skinny skyscraper with a clever diamond-paned exoskeleton has won rave reviews from city planning commissioners, who predict it might be beautiful enough to earn a spot as one of LA’s most iconic buildings. [...] If it’s ever built, that is.

The proposal for Olympic Tower, a showy 57-story skyscraper near the Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles, has been inching through the planning process for some time now, and as Curbed LA reports, has recently managed to wow the city's planning commission.

Designed by Nardi Associates, the proposed tower sports a steel exoskeleton which could open up the possibility for vertical gardens and an enormous 28-story atrium in the structure's midsection.

View this post on Instagram ANNOUNCEMENT- OLYMPIC TOWER ADVISORY AGENCY PUBLIC HEARING AT LOS ANGELES CITY HALL ON AUGUST 28, 2019. We would like to share these great news on the unanimous approval of the Tentative Track Map and all Technical elements of our design by the Advisory Agency in a public Hearing format; the advisory panel as well as the attending public audience celebrated our design and they look forward to the construction of our project to be located at the corner of Olympic Blvd. and Figueroa St. , ...

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.

FBI corruption probe follows Chinese investments in high-profile Downtown L.A. developments

2019-01-15T19:05:00-05:00

The rapid transformation of downtown Los Angeles’ skyline is being fueled in good measure by huge investments from Chinese companies eager to burnish their global brands and capitalize on L.A.’s real estate boom. Now some of those projects have become a focus of federal agents seeking evidence of possible bribery, extortion, money laundering and other crimes as part of a corruption investigation at City Hall.

The FBI search warrant lists a number of high-profile property developers and real estate companies from mainland China that have considerably shaped the skyline of Downtown Los Angeles with monumental high-rise projects in recent years, such as Shenzhen New World Group, Shenzhen Hazens, Greenland USA, and Oceanwide. No specific charges have been brought forward at this point of the investigation.

A+D Museum presents 'The Assembly'

2018-06-26T13:01:00-04:00

This Saturday, June 30, 2018 from 6:30-10pm the A+D Museum will unveil The Assembly. The Assembly is a new tradition; it is a gathering. This approach to exhibition openings is an expression of the museum's mission to join together a diverse group in celebration of different disciplines of design and points of view.

The inaugural event opens five exhibits open for the summer season. The Room gallery houses Cycle & Pattern, a fashion exhibition in collaboration with Otis College. A+D premiers its first outing with GCP, the museum’s curatorial lab, in The Alcove gallery with 3-Ways, a projection-based show exploring themes of scale and communication. Sunset 2050, in The Alley gallery, is a breathtaking retrospective and futuristic interpretation of Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles with UCLA. Doppelgängers, in The Lane gallery, offers a view into the architectural mind of Patrick Tighe Architecture. The Island features Back to Front, an outdoor installation by StereoBot & Oasys taking on the...

Archinect Outpost to open in Downtown Los Angeles, Launch Party June 15th

2018-06-05T12:19:00-04:00

Join Archinect in celebrating the opening of Archinect Outpost and the launch of Ed 2 "Architecture of Disaster" on June 15th, 7-10 PM.

RSVP here to reserve your spot!

Archinect Outpost is an exciting new retail initiative in downtown LA's Arts District, a rapidly transforming creative hub home to SCI-Arc and a number architecture & design practices. Archinect Outpost will launch with a curated collection of small-run, independently published architecture publications including Art Papers, Beautifully Banal, Bracket, CLOG, Concrete Maps, Ed, Flat Out, Fresh Meat Journal, Harvard Design Magazine, Intern Mag, LA+, Log, MASKS, MacGuffin, Migrant Journal, MONU, NESS, PAX, Place-Holder, Plat Journal, POOL, Project Journal, Soiled, and Thresholds Journal.

Archinect Outpost will be located at 900 E 4th St, in the heart of downtown LA's Arts District. Astute locals will notice that it's the same address as the A+D Museum, home to some of the most exciting exhibitions and events in the cit...

A tour of The LA Times' historic HQ

2018-04-16T18:02:00-04:00

The buildings were constructed and built by the Chandler Family. The different sections of the block have different cornerstones set by succeeding generations. – at Los Angeles Times

With the news that Patrick Soon-Shiong is moving the LAT’s newsroom from its historic HQ, to El Segundo, Ben Welsh Editor @LATdatadesk took readers on a wander through the interlocking buildings, at 1st and Spring.

Needle exchange: a look at Herzog & de Meuron's transformative "needle" tower development in DTLA's arts district

2016-09-29T19:27:00-04:00

The name of Herzog and de Meuron's proposed new development for downtown Los Angeles' arts district, 6 AM, seems like an hour/mindset that most of its current residents experience only because they stayed up much too late. But no one can stop the dawn of high-concept gentrification from breaking all over the district of former abandoned warehouses, especially when that concept promises to embody the so-called "DNA"of Los Angeles.

According to an article by Frances Anderton, de Meuron purposefully nixed medium height buildings from 6 AM's design in favor of nose-bleed high rises and squat, table-like mixed-use structures, as this was reflective of how he views Los Angeles:

“The high rise for us is important to make a difference between the low and the high because I think this is a part of specificity of Los Angeles. It’s either flat or it’s high. You don’t have in between bulky buildings. So (we’d) rather do extremely low and then you go higher. (The towers are) needle like — it shows...

Bureau Spectacular's first retail project is now open in L.A.'s Arts District

2016-09-12T18:52:00-04:00

Bureau Spectacular etched their mark into Downtown L.A.'s Arts District with the new Frankie flagship store that opened last Friday, celebrating the relaunch of the high-end streetwear label as well as the firm's first retail store design. Frankie founder Kevin Chen worked alongside Jimenez Lai in designing the store. For starters, Lai created the striking graphic novel-like facade on the building's revamped exterior — but that's where the fun starts.

Inside, the 2,000 square-foot retail space has a room-within-a-room setup that alludes to Lai's earlier works like the “Speechbuster / 99 Chairs” sculpture and the “Briefcase House”.

Visitors will encounter one of Bureau Spectacular's Super-Furnitures, described as “a structure too small to be a building but too large to simply be a piece of furniture”. The nine-piece, 28-foot-long modular staircase is an interactive jigsaw structure that can be assembled into a runway or to provide seating, or disassembled into individual pieces for var...

Watch seventy years of Downtown LA's architecture compared side-by-side

2016-07-22T13:37:00-04:00

Bunker Hill, an area of roughly five square blocks in downtown Los Angeles, holds a place in city lore similar to that of the water wars or the construction of Dodger Stadium: beginning in 1959, it was the subject of a massive urban-renewal project, in which “improvement” was generally defined by the people who stood to profit from it [...] subject of this short film by Keven McAlester, which compares what the same streets in downtown Los Angeles looked like in the nineteen-forties and today.

Stills via YouTube.

DTLA's Music Center Plaza will get a $30M remodel, its first since 1964

2016-07-19T15:56:00-04:00

Grand Avenue’s Music Center Plaza is about to get a major renovation for the first time since it opened to the public in 1964. Often overshadowed (literally) by the prominent Downtown venues that stand above it, the plaza is a gathering place and event space in its own right. Thus, a major part of the plan would increase event capacity from 1,500 to 2,500. [LA County] has already given $2 million to plan the project, with $25 million of funding expected down the road.

More recent L.A. news on Archinect:

Michael Maltzan proposes greening L.A.'s 134 freeway

Downtown LA has a new museum on the horizon

Historic LA Times Building to be redeveloped

"Bouncy-house urbanism is on the rise." – Christopher Hawthorne rides the U.S. Bank Tower's 'SkySlide'

Agence Ter and Team wins Pershing Square Renew with “radically flat“ proposal

Downtown LA has a new museum on the horizon

2016-07-01T17:16:00-04:00

It may not seem as if downtown Los Angeles is in need of yet another arts space. But it is coming nonetheless — and it’s aiming to fill a more locally minded role than some of the institutions around it. The Main Museum will be a non-collecting institution housed in a series of historic early 20th century structures in the Old Bank District. Helmed by Allison Agsten, who previously served as the curator of public engagement at the Hammer Museum, the curatorial focus will be resolutely local.

The Main Museum is being designed by Tom Wiscombe Architecture and will have some 40,000 sq. ft. of exhibition space. There will also be a rooftop sculpture garden and amphitheater.

The opening is still a way off though: the ground floor spaces are expected to open in 2018 an the rooftop should be finished in 2020.

For more on the Main Museum and Tom Wiscombe Architecture, check out these links:

Historic LA Times Building to be redeveloped

2016-06-30T13:06:00-04:00

A Vancouver developer buying the storied Los Angeles Times building plans to demolish portions of the 750,000-square-foot complex to make way for a residential and retail development [...] [The developer] intends to build apartments in place of a 1970s-era chunk of the building at Broadway and First Street, according to sources familiar with its plan. The stone-clad segments from 1935 and 1948, along Spring Street, would undergo renovations to house offices and retailers.

According to the article, the developer – Onni Group – paid around $120 million for the building. It was previously owned by the Chicago-based company Tribune Media Co. The Los Angeles Times remains a tenant in the historic structure.

For more Downtown Los Angeles news, check out these links:

"Bouncy-house urbanism is on the rise." – Christopher Hawthorne rides the U.S. Bank Tower's 'SkySlide'

2016-06-24T12:53:00-04:00

As white-shoe law firms shrink and expanding tech companies in L.A. increasingly move into restored warehouses or historic buildings, commercial skyscrapers around the country are struggling to find tenants. [...] That leaves the owners of aging all-office high-rises like the U.S. Bank Tower looking for ways to produce new revenue [...] OUE is not the first company to see a possible revenue stream in the desire of adults to pay money to act like children in downtown settings.

More on what's happening in Downtown Los Angeles:

Mia Lehrer + OMA win over Eric Owen Moss, Brooks + Scarpa, AECOM to design DTLA's new public park

2016-06-10T14:52:00-04:00

Los Angeles is in for a lot of (proposed) change, especially in its downtown core. Yesterday, the City of L.A. announced Mia Lehrer + Associates and OMA as the winners of a competition to design a new public park called the FAB Park...Proposed for the well-trafficked streets of First and Broadway in downtown L.A., the 1.96-acre FAB Park will integrate “the themes of food, art, and land.”

Find out more on Bustler.

Previously on Archinect:

Take a look at these bold visions for Downtown LA's next park

A critical look at Downtown L.A.'s ambitious plans for two new public parks

Agence Ter and Team wins Pershing Square Renew with “radically flat“ proposal

Why does LA have so many new galleries?

2016-03-11T12:27:00-05:00

The grand openings of the Los Angeles branches of European galleries Sprüth Magers and Hauser & Wirth (called Hauser Wirth & Schimmel), on 23 February and 13 March respectively, are sure to generate even more buzz about the booming Los Angeles art scene [...] Some of the buzz is well earned, especially when it comes to cheaper downtown real estate and the great artists working and teaching here. But there is another strong incentive behind so many galleries making the move...

According to the Art Newspaper, LA's new gallery boom reflects market competition to represent the disproportionately sizable population of impressive, well-established artists who, for a variety of reasons, lack gallery representation in their hometown. The article also notes that while opening an LA satellite serves a defensive, even necessary move, the city has yet to develop a real, sustainable collector base.

For more on LA's ever-growing art scene, check out some past coverage:

A critical look at Downtown L.A.'s ambitious plans for two new public parks

2016-02-26T21:24:00-05:00

One thing, though, is different this time around. These days the city and county are busy investing money and lavishing attention on public spaces across L.A. — and even producing some from scratch...In a range of ways, Southern California is beginning to make up for neglecting its public realm for the bulk of the postwar era.

With two park design competitions currently underway (linked below), Downtown L.A. is eager to boost its amount of green space. But will those ambitious plans pan out in a tricky cityscape? Christopher Hawthorne gives his two cents on the potential of each park.

Previously on Archinect:

Take a look at these bold visions for Downtown LA's next park

Pershing Square Renew competition narrows down to four finalist teams

Take a look at these bold visions for Downtown LA's next park

2016-02-24T14:26:00-05:00

LA has few corners as prominent as First and Broadway. Directly adjacent to the art deco City Hall and across from the LA Times building, the nearly-2 acre lot stands at the center of an increasingly well-trafficked pedestrian area. Now, some of the biggest names in town are competing to transform the lot into a bold new park.

After a wider call for proposals, the LA Bureau of Engineering, in conjunction with the Mayor's Office, announced a shortlist of finalists late last year: AECOM, Brooks + Scarpa Architects, Eric Owen Moss Architects, and Mia Lehrer + Associates in collaboration with OMA. Each practice was given six weeks to produce a design, which are currently of public view.

Soon, the City will announce the winners of the competition, following input from the public, and then will proceed to finalize the designs.

Since the new park abuts the larger Grand Park (designed by Rios Clementi Hale Studios), it needs to both stand out as a unique design and seamlessly mesh with the exi...

Take a look at "6," an experimental documentary that memorializes the recently-demolished Sixth Street Viaduct in LA

2016-02-11T18:35:00-05:00

These days, it’s hard to think clearly about the Los Angeles River. Once the lifeline of the city and, before that, the Tongva people, the river was paved in the early 20th century following a series of devastating floods and then – at least according to a well-worn narrative – forgotten by the public.

After years of potamic amnesia, or so the story goes, Los Angeles suddenly remembered its river, finding in the thin stream a possible answer to both its growing thirst and perpetual identity crises. Now, nobody seems to talk about much else besides “our forgotten river”. In a sense, the LA River is the ecological inverse of Kim Kardashian: famous for being not-famous.

Of course, endless editorializing belies this apparent obscurity. It wasn’t just Frank Gehry’s arrival that heralded the return of the LA River to public attention, or the concatenation of activists and designers that preceded him. In a way, it had never really been forgotten at all. After all, the river has appeared i...