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The LA-based developer City Century has filed a project application with the city planning department for a major new building complex design by SOM and P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S. Located at the intersection of Olympic and the 110, right across from the Staples Center and LA Live, the project would comprise... View full entry
Fifty-two stories, four visually distinct sections, and one playful, gaping hole constitute the major components of Gensler's proposed new 300+ unit residential building for downtown Los Angeles, which would rise from the ashes of a (soon-to-be) former auto dealership on 1600 South Figueroa... View full entry
Earlier this year, the Sixth Street Bridge, which spans the Los Angeles River and connects the Arts District to Boyle Heights, was demolished due to a structural issue known as “concrete rot”. Built in 1932, the bridge held an iconic status in the collective imagination of the city... View full entry
Take away the conceptual heft of Chris Burden's Metropolis II and substitute in a grade-school love for pre-fabricated plastic building blocks and you'd have something like Jorge Parra Jr.'s eight-years-in-the-making Lego model of Los Angeles, which portrays a detailed swath of the city's... View full entry
The sail and the spire challenged the best intentions of city planners, the fire department and the architectural community, who believed that a 1974 building code requiring helicopter landing pads on all buildings higher than 75 feet should be inviolable. [...]
A.C. Martin Partners, however, argued that the Wilshire Grand should change the status quo, and they took their inspiration in part from the ziggurat-inspired crown of City Hall, which their firm had designed in the 1920s.
— latimes.com
For more on L.A.'s changing downtown:Museum at the front line: One-to-One #33 with Dora Epstein Jones, executive director of the A+D MuseumDowntown LA has a new museum on the horizonWilshire Grand Tower, the West Coast's tallest building, structurally tops out in LA"Bouncy-house urbanism is on the... View full entry
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.
— Los Angeles Times
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... View full entry
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.
— LA Business Journal
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... View full entry
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.
— latimes.com
More on what's happening in Downtown Los Angeles: The West Coast's tallest tower is getting a glass-bottomed slide on its 69th floorMia Lehrer + OMA win over Eric Owen Moss, Brooks + Scarpa, AECOM to design DTLA's new public parkAgence Ter and Team wins Pershing Square Renew with “radically... View full entry
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.” — Bustler
Find out more on Bustler.Previously on Archinect:Take a look at these bold visions for Downtown LA's next parkA critical look at Downtown L.A.'s ambitious plans for two new public parksAgence Ter and Team wins Pershing Square Renew with “radically flat“ proposal View full entry
The Pershing Square Renew initiative revealed Agence Ter and Team as the winners of the competition to redesign Downtown L.A.'s oldest public park, exactly two weeks after the four finalist teams delivered their final presentations. The winning consortium is led by French landscape practice... View full entry
virtually all of downtown’s brokers and landlords had clamored to attract the tech giant. Only a handful of locations were said to be seriously in the running, all historic sites on Broadway.
“Apple is known to do things that are outside-of-the-box and unorthodox,” said broker Gabe Kadosh of Colliers International. “It creates a bigger splash by going in a historic building.” [...]
“When it becomes fully known, the pricing is going to skyrocket,” said Kadosh.
— labusinessjournal.com
Related on Archinect:A critical look at Downtown L.A.'s ambitious plans for two new public parksHow L.A. can reboot its "creative economy" so artists can actually live in townHow Downtown LA's skyline evolved over the last half centuryWhy Steve Jobs Obsessed About Office Design (And, Yes, Bathroom... View full entry
Workers, architects and engineers gathered Tuesday afternoon to celebrate a milestone in the construction of Los Angeles’ most notable skyscraper at the corner of Figueroa Street and Wilshire Boulevard. The ceremony, known as the topping out, marks completion of the building’s central core: a pillar of concrete that rises more than 892 feet from the foundation.[...]
Upon completion, the Wilshire Grand will rise 1,100 feet and be the tallest building west of Chicago.
— latimes.com
LA's Wilshire Grand previously in the Archinect news:The daring men building LA's New Wilshire Grand towerDowntown LA to set record for world's largest concrete pour View full entry
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. — L.A. Times
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
Final farewells were visible all over the 6th Street Viaduct on Wednesday. Spinning tire trails were burned onto the bridge's asphalt deck; declarations of love and poetry were scribbled onto its concrete railings and incomprehensible graffiti was blasted across its high metal arches...Demolition of the crumbling bridge is scheduled to begin this week and could take up to nine months to complete, as crews cart away more than 110,000 tons of concrete. — Los Angeles Times
"While I'm more aware that the closure will cause delays, believe me, it will be worth it in the long run,” Mayor Garcetti tells the L.A. Times. More on Archinect: Say goodbye to the Sixth Street Viaduct along the L.A. River at ForumFest 2015, Oct. 25 HNTB, Maltzan, AC Martin win 6th Street... View full entry