By Louise Roug | Times Staff Writer
1:46 PM PDT, August 9, 2004
After decades of stalled plans and false starts, planners today selected a New York-based developer to oversee an ambitious revitalization of Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles.
Calling it a historic day, city leaders chose The Related Cos., which developed Time Warner Center in New York, to build on four pieces of public property adjacent to the landmark Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Related beat out Forest City, a shopping mall developer that is working on the new 52-story New York Times Co. headquarters.
The firms offered only vague outlines about what they would create, with Related suggesting partnerships with Cirque du Soleil as well as media giant Clear Channel. Related's plan will be produced with Santa Monica-based architect Thom Mayne, creator of the new Caltrans building in downtown.
Community leaders see transforming Grand Avenue — already home to landmarks like Disney Hall, the Music Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels — into a vibrant boulevard of luxury housing, hotels, office towers and cultural institutions, as well as a 16-acre park stretching from the Music Center to City Hall.
"This is probably the most important thing that has happened for the region and downtown for 20 years," Eli Broad, the billionaire philanthropist who was instrumental in getting MOCA and Disney Hall built, said in a recent interview. Broad is co-chair of the Grand Avenue committee that recommended the selection of Related.
The effort marks the latest attempt by Los Angeles to connect this section of downtown with the rest of the city center. Bunker Hill was, until the early 1960s, a gritty district of residential hotels and aging bungalows that looked down on the rest of downtown. The neighborhood was razed and replaced by a cluster of skyscrapers. Workers occupied the towers during the day but they cleared out in the evening, and the district never developed an urban nightlife.
The Grand Avenue project is expected to cost $1.9 billion. A comprehensive plan is due by September 2005.
9 Comments
More info on the Grand Avenue Committee Look under "Questions" to see who is part of the Related Companies team (and the Forest City team).
Just to clarify - it's my understanding that the basis of the award to the related companies was on the attractive financing and the likelihood of delivering the project as promised, and not on architectural merit (ahem... Caltrans?)
That is my understanding, too, Janosh.
That being the case, and not withstanding Caltrans, I have always been more excited about the Related Companies design team than any of the other developers in the game, including the Gehry/Pitt/Hadid/Nouvel circus show (and especially after seeing the rather conventional and uninspiring Calthorpe-directed scheme released by Forest City). Related's design team is LA-heavy - the best scenario is that Doug Suisman and Brenda Levin develop an intelligent urban response informed by deep local history (Doug is also working on the First St project with RCHStudios); and Thom Mayne + SOM deliver exciting architecture. I remain hopeful...
the commitee web site list som ahead of morphosis in the project team....will this be another wtc with regards to design so called collaboration??
Peter Slatin comments
and more reporting from the LA Times
Alan: Can you point me to a location where I can find the following: "Doug Suisman and Brenda Levin develop an intelligent urban response informed by deep local history"
Suisman and Levin have collectively worked on practically every historic corner of downtown. Suisman has already authored one plan for Grand Avenue (see LA Forum Issue 2); he was involved in the "10-minute diamond plan" (more Forum reporting in Issue 6); he is currently working with Rios on a streetscape project for 1st Street from Bunker Hill to East LA; and that small cafe near Grand Central Market is his design. And then there is the famous "LA Boulevard" book, which is one the better analysis of LA's urban form. Brenda Levin, on the other hand, has been involved in virtually every important renovation in the city: LA City Hall, the Bradbury Bldg, Grand Central Mkt, the Oviat, the Fine Arts Bldg, Griffith Observatory, the Wiltern...
Thanks Alan.
This morning I had to travel to 7th and Lucas to the new offices of Recreation and Parks to speak at the Commission hearing and while we were waiting I was complaining about the 10 minute diamond and how both the city and county sunk all kinds of time and money into this plan and her I am 15 minutes outside of the diamond!
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