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A former shopping center near downtown Los Angeles is getting a makeover thanks to an innovative new design that promises to take CLT building to brand new levels. LEVER Architecture is bringing mass timber construction to LA's Chinatown with a sizeable new office building that will add four new... View full entry
The American Institute of Architects Los Angeles (AIALA) has published a set of strategies urging LA city leaders to tackle the city’s homelessness and affordable housing crisis. The“House All Angelenos” Call-to-Action urges officials to adopt seven strategies aimed at accelerating the... View full entry
LA’s newest Apple Store is now up and running, showcasing a multimillion-dollar restoration project that brought an icon of cinema past to life in a push to stimulate post-pandemic business downtown with what promises to be the city’s latest tourist lure. The Apple Tower Theatre... View full entry
An Arts District cold-storage plant dating to the 1890s would be replaced with housing, offices, a hotel and shops in a proposal unveiled Thursday by Denver developers. With a price tag between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, the complex would rank among the largest L.A. commercial real estate developments in recent memory. — Los Angeles Times
Image: Studio One Eleven/Adjaye Associates According to the Los Angeles Times, the proposed Fourth & Central mixed-use mega-development in Downtown LA's rapidly transforming Arts District would consist of 10 buildings. While local firm Studio One Eleven is in charge of the master plan and building... View full entry
[...] the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Commission signed off the initial phase of the long-proposed remodel of Pershing Square. [...]
The first phase of the project, as detailed in a presentation from Gruen Associates partner Debra Gerod, would focus on the Olive Street side of the park. The most visible of the proposed changes is the removal of the cafe building, creating space for a new landscaped plaza with outdoor seating.
— Urbanize Los Angeles
French landscape practice Agence Ter, working in collaboration with Los Angeles-based firms SALT Landscape Architects, Deborah Murphy Urban Design + Planning, Rachel Allen Architecture, among others, won the 2016 international design competition to redesign Pershing Square, the oldest public park... View full entry
Two years after The Grand, the Gehry-designed $1-billion mixed-use development, broke ground in Downtown Los Angeles, construction reached a major milestone this week with the enormous structure officially topping out. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Grand (@thegrandla) A... View full entry
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 Real Deal
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... View full entry
Gehry Partners has unveiled a set of renderings for the firm's $310 million Colburn School concert halls, a pair of performance spaces that aim to add a public arts component to Gehry's forthcoming $1 billion mega-development, The Grand. The renderings, published by The Los Angeles... View full entry
Work on the Grand, a long-anticipated mixed-use complex designed by architect Frank Gehry has reached the halfway mark as construction carries on unobtrusively through the pandemic.
The towering collection of apartments, stores, restaurants, movie theaters and a luxury hotel is rising on a full city block across Grand Avenue from Gehry’s famed Walt Disney Concert Hall at a time when few are around to witness its creation.
— The Los Angeles Times
Roger Vincent of The Los Angeles Times checks in on the construction progress for The Grand, a forthcoming $1 billion mixed-use development taking shape in Downtown Los Angeles across from the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The project, designed by Gehry Partners, has been in the works for... View full entry
“I would be disgusted if we had to drive through downtown Los Angeles for generations and see buildings marking the city skyline that were achieved through bribery and corruption,” said Councilman Paul Krekorian, who has also proposed barring developers implicated in criminal conduct from getting any future approvals. — The Los Angeles Times
Emily Alpert Reyes of The Los Angeles Times takes a look at the handful of projects that have been tied to an ongoing federal corruption investigation targeting Los Angeles City Council member Jose Huizar and investigates how planning approvals for some those projects may be impacted by their... View full entry
Officials in Downtown Los Angeles are moving to cancel building permits for a $700 million mixed-use development embroiled in a sprawling federal corruption investigation working its way through the city government's highest levels. In June, Los Angeles City Planning Director Vince Bertoni... View full entry
At a news conference Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna cited [a forthcoming project in the Los Angeles Arts District] as an example of “the harm that comes with bribery.”
“Thanks to Mr. Huizar, the development would have minimal affordable housing units, despite the fact that this area is desperate for low-income housing,” Hanna said.
— The Los Angeles Times
Writing in The Los Angeles Times, Emily Alpert Reyes and David Zahniser dig into the fallout of a still unfolding corruption probe taking shape in Los Angeles that implicates sitting City Councilmember Jose Huizar, who was arrested earlier this week by federal authorities. The probe has... View full entry
Michael Maltzan Architects has announced it is leading the design team for a new headquarters facility for the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles. The forthcoming headquarters is slated for a site in the city's rapidly gentrifying Westlake neighborhood just outside Downtown Los Angeles, where many... View full entry
A 43-story tower designed by Australian firm Koichi Takada Architects proposed for a site in Downtown Los Angeles has gotten a new look and an updated set of uses. Initiated by Australian developers Crown Group, the glass-wrapped tower features a domed top with a crown decorated in... View full entry
One Los Angeles city councilman, now out of office, admitted last week that he accepted envelopes of cash from a businessman in casino bathrooms. [...]
Yet another council member allegedly sought a $500,000 cash bribe from a real estate developer, according to a plea deal struck between federal investigators and a political fundraiser who admitted collecting much of the money in a paper bag.
— Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times reporters David Zahniser and Emily Alpert Reyes shed light on the growing number of municipal corruption scandals in Los Angeles. A probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigations has revealed the degree to which real estate development plays a role in feeding “pay-to-play”... View full entry
