[fridayinla]

pretty much a done deal...it seems. the sales staff which was to represent 1010 seem to be shifting their focus and energy over to Solair.

Are you talking about Urbana?

[Kerry Marsico]

yes, the Urbana team. I went to a preview presentataion this evening about Solair...high-end, high-tech...I think it's going to be pretty incredible.

[Kerry Marsico]

duplicate message (how do I delete these???)

[fridayinla]

^You can't. Most people just replace the text with a period or "edit"

[fridayinla]

yes, the Urbana team. I went to a preview presentataion this evening about Solair...high-end, high-tech...I think it's going to be pretty incredible.

Yeah, I know someone at Urbana and I've seen the material. The place will be incredible... and incredibly expensive. The building is going up so quickly also. :cool:

[BrighamYen]

yes, the Urbana team. I went to a preview presentataion this evening about Solair...high-end, high-tech...I think it's going to be pretty incredible.


Exactly how high-end? And how high-tech? I'm curious... :yes:

[fridayinla]

^I heard prices where starting in the $800s for Solair.

[danparker276]

So is this Starbucks going to be done by the planned Oct 1st?
Taken today:
http://loftla.com/loftla/Handler.ashx?PhotoID=738&Size=L

[danparker276]

Looks like retail at 1010, they're putting the glass up:
http://loftla.com/loftla/Handler.ashx?PhotoID=734&Size=L

These were supposed to be condos/apts, but I don't see how you won't be looking at bums pissing on your windows all day.
Edit: I'm refering to the 1st floor, or maybe they'll change it to retail?

http://loftla.com/loftla/Handler.ashx?PhotoID=735&Size=L

[ThreeHundred]

Ahh 1010 Wilshire...alwayss overlooked. What kind of retial will it have?

[Westsidelife]

Thomas P. Cox has some never before seen renderings of the Wilshire and La Brea project on their website. Click on the On-the-Boards section for five great renderings of the project.

http://www.tca-arch.com/

[Echo Park]

^

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/5808/70002588nt7.jpg

http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/5051/59166932sp3.jpg

http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/6319/80990520hg7.jpg

http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/3870/54294655gn7.jpg

http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/717/76985299do2.jpg

[BrighamYen]

Those are nice renderings! Really gives the area a substantial feeling after if its completed.

[danparker276]

1100wilshirela.com
finally updated their website. Looks a lot better now

[JRinSoCal]

Wow! That Wilshire and La Brea project looks massive. Is this already under construction or at least approved yet?

[BrighamYen]

Ahh 1010 Wilshire...alwayss overlooked. What kind of retial will it have?

Probably the same as every other project in DTLA (Starbucks, Pastagina, Roebeks, Quiznos, etc.). :haha:

[fridayinla]

Gardens at Wilshire Center - Wilshire & Hobart - Scaffolding now up on Wilshire side
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1331/1353041618_4b067c8161_b.jpg

Equitable City Center - 6th & Alexandria - Nearing completion
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1208/1352114383_a947186713_b.jpg

Solair Wilshire - Wilshire/Western - 11 Floors Up Now
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1285/1348720000_22febef32b_b.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1113/1347818553_31b37703c1_b.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1365/1347822127_15b1e2df5e_b.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1103/1347814259_b2dad79ffd_b.jpg

Wilshire Center - Wilshire/Vermont - Site demolition complete, constrution should start in the coming months
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1276/1348701224_9becf6d8f3_b.jpg

Wilshire/Vermont - Complete but no retail yet
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1096/1347810669_99c858b0f9_b.jpg

[fridayinla]

Curbed is reporting the BLU in Beverly Hills (Wilshire & Stanley) is starting to unwrap. This thing has been under renovation for over 2 years. What an improvement!!!

http://la.curbed.com/uploads/2007-09-blubevhills.jpg
Image Credit: Curbed LA (http://la.curbed.com/archives/2007/09/sexy_unveiling.php#more)

[BrighamYen]

^ Yeah saw that lastnight when we drove by. I was raving about it too! I remember vaguely the old facade and how nasty it was. And how that thing has been wrapped in green for as long as I can remember. I always wondered what it was because there were never any signs outside posted to let people know what it was going to be. (And I'm not resourceful enough to look it up in the public records.)

[fridayinla]

from the LA Business Journal re: Club View on Wilshire:

Posh Condo Development Sold

By DANIEL MILLER

Los Angeles Business Journal Staff

Fifield Cos. has sold a Wilshire Corridor condo development – once touted as the city’s most high-end – to a Dubai developer for its $95.4 million asking price.

The Club View development, which is under construction, will include up to 35 ultra high-end condo units priced around $2,000 per square foot. Buyer Emaar Properties, a large Dubai developer, is expected to complete the project in two years. The deal closed Sept. 18.

John Laing Homes Luxury Division, a unit of Emaar, will work on the project. Last year Emaar acquired Newport Beach-based John Laing Homes. Emaar is building the $4 billion Burj Dubai skyscraper, which is under construction and slated to be the tallest building in the world at 160 stories.

“I am very pleased we sold it to someone with their background,” said Steve Fifield, founder and president of his namesake, Chicago-based company. “I know that John Laing Homes is looking at this as a total world-class project. We understand that they are going to make some significant upgrades.”

Emaar paid about $60 million for the land and about $30 million for the construction work that has already been completed and the associated building materials. Fifield said that finishes and features in the units could be upgraded, noting “they think that L.A. really is a world-class city, and we are ready for a triple A plus development.”

Fifield, which co-developed the project with Raleigh Enterprises Inc., took the unusual step earlier this year of putting the incomplete project on the market, along with two other California condo developments. Construction of the 21-story tower at 1200 S. Club View Drive just west of the Los Angeles Country Club began in November; so far the foundations and underground levels have been completed.

At the time the project was announced in 2006 the developer’s former brokerage said the penthouse would be sold for about $18 million, which would have made it the most expensive Los Angeles condominium.

Several other ultra luxury condo projects were later announced that would have topped that price, but now there are concerns that the luxury market may be oversaturated and overpriced given the widespread liquidity problems in the mortgage industry.

Fifield discounted those concerns saying “the prospective buyers we were talking to at Club View were not people who are impacted by what is going on in the credit markets.”

[danparker276]

Any update on the Subway opening in Vero? Still months away?

I haven't seen anything from starbucks in the unit on wilshire on bixel.

[Echo Park]

subway, quiznos, starbucks.

so many interesting retail options in all the new high rises.

[JRinSoCal]

And don't forget Coldstone creamery. The city is gonna soon look like a giant Irvine Spectrum.

[WesTheAngelino]

And don't forget Coldstone creamery. The city is gonna soon look like a giant Irvine Spectrum.


Well, what would you prefer exactly? I understand your concern over bland retail choices, but quite frankly I welcome with open arms all the name brands that are popping up downtown. And I really don't want to see those viable retail spaces wasted on people who don't know what the hell they're doing, and this is coming from someone who used to work for a new, indie restaurant at 5th and Spring ( a fabulous location) which shall remail nameless.

[RAlossi]

Weeneez?

[WesTheAngelino]

^ Yes

[Westsidelife]

http://la.curbed.com/uploads/2007-09-5600wilshire-con.jpg

Construction Watch: 5600 Wilshire Fills the Pit

By jwilliams
September 28, 2007

We're happy to report that work is progressing nicely at the 5600 Wilshire project (http://la.curbed.com/archives/2006/11/curbedwire_work.php), which as many of you may remember sat as an open pit (http://la.curbed.com/2006-10-thepit.jpg) for what seemed like years (actually, it was approximately 27 years). The proposed 284-unit, mixed use project had workers crawling all over it when we stopped by earlier this week. According to the Larchmont Chronicle (http://www.larchmontchronicle.com/ArchiveDetail.asp?ArchiveID=663), the project is proposed for completion in Fall 2008. The water-colory renderings (after the jump) indicate a color scheme involving various shades of non-descript browns and beiges, sure to kill the soul of anyone who wanders near.

http://la.curbed.com/uploads/2007-09-5600wilshire-rend1.jpg

http://la.curbed.com/uploads/2007-09-5600wilshire-rend2.jpg


Source: Curbed LA (http://la.curbed.com/archives/2007/09/construction_wa_14.php)

[Westsidelife]

September 23, 2007

Solair Wilshire
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1102/1430971032_4399691678_b.jpg
From Flickr, by fridayinla

Serrano Palace Tower
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1168/1430975302_ce7b85f79f_b.jpg
From Flickr, by fridayinla

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1104/1430980198_cec6578cbd_b.jpg
From Flickr, by fridayinla

Gardens at Wilshire Center
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1083/1430115325_19e0014a07_b.jpg
From Flickr, by fridayinla

The Summit
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1362/1430123849_bf1879234d_b.jpg
From Flickr, by fridayinla

6th and Vermont
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1341/1430128531_e3afc60e66_b.jpg
From Flickr, by fridayinla

[BrighamYen]

^ Yes

Oooh, so you're the one who added me to Myspace...

[ThreeHundred]

^ Do you ever sleep?

Btw...anyone have a rendering of The Summit?

[Westsidelife]

The Summit

http://www.vtbs.com/images/large/3_6b.jpg

http://www.vtbs.com/images/large/summit2a.jpg

http://www.vtbs.com/images/large/summit4a.jpg

http://www.vtbs.com/images/large/summit5a.jpg

http://www.vtbs.com/images/large/summit3a.jpg

http://www.vtbs.com/images/large/summit6a.jpg

http://www.vtbs.com/images/large/summit1a.jpg

[ThreeHundred]

Wow...that's really amazing. Something like that needs to be built downtown.

[Echo Park]

ARCHITECTURE REVIEW
Up close, the romance is gone

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2007-10/32954251.jpg

The new Wilshire Vermont Station complex in Koreatown appears dramatic from a distance. But a walk in its courtyard exposes its flaws.

By Christopher Hawthorne, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 3, 2007

THE first time I saw Wilshire Vermont Station, a new $136-million apartment and retail complex in Koreatown, was from my car, at night. Illuminated like a carnival attraction, it loomed dramatically -- even romantically -- into view as I drove east on Wilshire Boulevard.

What caught my attention first was a huge, brightly colored mural by April Greiman, which covers two ends of the building as they converge at the corner and shows an abstracted rice bowl. The whole ensemble -- broad-shouldered, street-hugging architecture meets gigantic work of art -- struck me as both full of and larger than life.

The next time I saw the building, which sits directly above a Metro stop, it was midday. I came by subway and then rode the escalators directly into its courtyard, which connects the station entrance to the sidewalk. The sun beat down unrelentingly on a huge space that offers almost no shade. Plenty of people streamed by on their way to and from the station, but few stopped to talk; there was nowhere to sit. Up close, it became clear that as a piece of construction the building, designed by the Miami firm Arquitectonica, is fundamentally a stucco box trying to avoid looking like a stucco box.

Let's just say the romance was gone.

To be fair, the shops and restaurants lining the plaza have yet to open. The space promises to be a good deal more inviting once they do. And quite a few big projects built during the last five years, as construction costs skyrocketed, share the same shortcomings -- particularly those that aren't aiming at the high end of the market. Jointly developed by Urban Partners and MacFarlane Partners, on land owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Wilshire Vermont Station has nearly 100 units set aside for low-income residents; the rest of its 449 apartments, from studios to two-bedrooms, rent for $1,400 to $2,600 per month.

But in the noticeable gap between the way it appears to drivers, on the one hand, and pedestrians and subway commuters on the other, the building is a textbook example of a growing dilemma for planners and designers in this city. Call it the Density Paradox.

During the many decades that architects enthusiastically celebrated the Wilshire Corridor as the heart of L.A.'s car culture -- our linear downtown -- the monuments they produced nonetheless had weight and solidity. The Wiltern, the Superior Court just off Wilshire, even the relatively anonymous Shatto, a Modernist office block directly across the boulevard from Wilshire Vermont Station: All these older buildings can withstand sidewalk scrutiny, even though for most of their lifetimes they have also operated -- perhaps primarily operated -- as backdrops.

Now that we want our buildings once again to work at the scale of pedestrians and Metro commuters, we've settled into a kind of construction that relies on architectural misdirection or sleight-of-hand and tends to be most satisfying when seen from a moving car. (Responsible for the shift, among other culprits, are those higher building costs and tighter codes.) The more infill construction we pursue, the more aggressively we pack in drugstores and schools next to each other, the less able we are to give them real architectural presence on the ground -- or to keep them from looking like every other new project filling every boulevard and shopping center in the city.

The fact that Wilshire Vermont Station is an unusually ambitious example of what is known in planning circles as a TOD, for Transit-Oriented Development, makes its hollowness stand out all the more.

Arquitectonica has made a few high-stakes efforts to give the project a sense of surprise and vitality. The walls on which Greiman's giant mural are painted fold sharply in the middle, along the diagonal, so that their top halves lean out toward each other.

Using what the architects describe as a kind of large-scale origami, this creates an abstracted arch over the pedestrian entry to the courtyard. And although the other exterior walls are generally affectless and drained of color, with windows grouped in a series of vertical bands, they offer brief moments of architectural intrigue.

One comes when the apartments, in their tidy march around the plaza, have to squeeze by and sit atop an existing glass-enclosed entrance to the Metro station. This pardon-me moment offers a subtle commentary on the way people slide by one another on crowded sidewalks and trains -- and an indication of how tricky the project was to build below ground, where it has to balance directly atop the subway tunnel.

Dan Rosenfeld, a founder of Urban Partners, concedes that it was a challenge to finance. After the MTA opened up the parcel for bids, only four developers threw their hats into the ring. (That's compared with 11 at Del Mar Station in Pasadena -- another Urban Partners development -- which was designed by the Pasadena firm Moule & Polyzoides and opened last year.) Those who passed on the chance to build here worried about relatively low incomes in the surrounding area and the complications of working with the MTA as a landlord.

But Rosenfeld, one of the few developers capable of quoting the famed Yale architectural historian Vincent Scully from memory, says he saw in the project not just a financial opportunity but a social one. He describes the corner of Wilshire and Vermont as "the most diverse intersection in the most diverse city in the most diverse country in the world." He sees potential tenants coming not just from Koreatown but from the Latino and African American neighborhoods nearby. He also hopes to lure downtown residents looking for a neighborhood that stays up a bit later each night.

As Rosenfeld points out, the building occupies not only a physical crossroads in the city but a crossroads in time. It arrives at a point in the development of Los Angeles when we are still very much a car culture, a city that continues to celebrate and romanticize speed and freedom of movement. But as we struggle to put a comprehensive transit system in place, our guilt about those tendencies keeps growing. Everyone involved in Wilshire Vermont Station is very much aware of the gap between the city we live in and the one we hope -- in our more optimistic or naïve moments, take your pick -- to become.

In fact, the way Greiman's artwork relates to the architecture of the building, as its two sides try but fail to come together, directly captures this quality. It suggests that as a city we're reaching for an urban wholeness that may prove illusory -- and that for the foreseeable future we're going to be a split-personality kind of town.

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2007-10/32949015.jpg

[LA/OC/London]

I live at the Wilshire Vermont station and I have to say that I don't really agree with Hawthorne's critique. The building's design, while nothing groundbreaking looks better than other new "stucco boxes" being constructed throughout the city. The mural itself adds something unique to the structure IMO. It has very vibrant colors that make it stand out and give it some added character.

As for the courtyard, I agree its a bit barren at the moment, however with no retail built out yet, there's little reason to hang out there. Once the various eateries and shops come in, however, I think the public space will be addressed as they will most likely offer outdoor seating areas. Also, yesterday small signs went on the windows of the retail spaces announcing the future tenants. So far all but two of the spaces have been leased, which is much better than I would have anticipated.

So far the tenants are: Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Samurai Sams, Great Steak and Potato Company, Nine West, a Shoe Store (sorry forgot the name), an un-named convenience store, Nail Salon, Hair Salon, Washington Mutual Bank, and Cold Stone Creamery. There may have been one more, but I'm drawing a blank on what it was. All in all - not bad.

In any case, I think the WV station is a positive development and adds something interesting to the already great Koreatown neighborhood. It's convenience to the metro is awesome, especially since I work across from the 7th/Metro station in downtown, shrinking my former 30 minute commute to 5-6 minutes door to door.

[DowntownCharlieBrown]

I live at the Wilshire Vermont station and I have to say that I don't really agree with Hawthorne's critique. The building's design, while nothing groundbreaking looks better than other new "stucco boxes" being constructed throughout the city. The mural itself adds something unique to the structure IMO. It has very vibrant colors that make it stand out and give it some added character.

In any case, I think the WV station is a positive development and adds something interesting to the already great Koreatown neighborhood. It's convenience to the metro is awesome, especially since I work across from the 7th/Metro station in downtown, shrinking my former 30 minute commute to 5-6 minutes door to door.

Hey Los Angeles Times – take note. Someone living in a TOD is taking public transit. :D

I also think it was very unfair and irresponsible for an article to be written about WV this early in the game before any retail has opened when it is obviously going to change the character of how the open space will work once retail is filled. :whip:

[LA/OC/London]

Hi DowntownCharlieBrown,

Agreed! It's ridiculous to critique a public space that will be dependent on retail foot traffic before the retail has opened. Obviously nobody is going to hang out in that courtyard right now, but when eateries, shops and services arrive, there will be plenty of incentive to hang out for a while.

My window faces the interior courtyard and the metro station and I'm looking forward to when the businesses open and people are sitting outside eating, sipping their coffee, or browsing the shops...it will clearly add a lot to what was once a pretty barren corner

As for my transit use, I moved to the building primarily for that reason. I was sick of driving to work and sitting in traffic. Living at WV station means that I can ditch the car even for basic things such as shopping (I go to the Ralphs downtown and carry my bags on the metro). I haven't been living there too long, but so far its the best building I've lived in...

[DowntownCharlieBrown]

Hello L/O/L,

Congrats on your new home. :cheers: I look forward to seeing that place come alive once filled.

Also, congrats on your escape from behind the Orange Curtain. :worship: Usually, nobody gets out.

[RAlossi]

Living at WV station means that I can ditch the car even for basic things such as shopping (I go to the Ralphs downtown and carry my bags on the metro). I haven't been living there too long, but so far its the best building I've lived in...

What do you think of the recently upgraded Ralphs at Wilshire/Western? It seems that might be closer to you than the South Park Ralphs.

[LA/OC/London]

What do you think of the recently upgraded Ralphs at Wilshire/Western? It seems that might be closer to you than the South Park Ralphs.

Hey RAlossi,

I haven't really checked out the Upgraded Ralphs near Wilshire Western. I like to pick up groceries after work so the South Park store is actually more convenient for me. One weekend I'll check out the Wilshire Western store. From where I live both are essentially two metro stops away making them pretty much equal as far as convenience is concerned depending on where I'm coming from.

[edluva]

i wrote a response on hawthorne's article at curbed. in it, i basically agreed with hawthorne's take on wilshire/vermont, noting that hawthorne was less criticizing arquitectonica than making a statement about LA in general through arquitectonica.

i basically see wilshire/vermont as symbolic of the irony that is LA - a hesitant urbanism and lack of context that is impossible to characterize or respond to architectually except by accident. in wilshire/vermont, this accident is perfectly summarized by hawthorne's stucco analogy - that wilshire/vermont is a stucco building pretending it's not stucco symbolic of LA's disingenuous stab at urbanism with TOD/mass trans. What i take from Hawthorne is that the shortcomings and confusion of arquitectonica at wilshire/western unwittingly prove to become the project's very "success" in the sense that wilshire/vermont unintentionally encapsulates LA's broader shortcomings; a generalized false pretension and an inability to embrace fundamental truths about itself. in other words, la's sense-of-place dilemma.

I disagree with some of the replies ive seen here in that i don't see Hawthorne's article as a moral summary-judgement on wilshire/vermont. it's more of an 'it is what it is' statement, and that's the beauty of the article.

[BrighamYen]

Maybe there are those who live here (who don't necessarily want to leave or are incapable of leaving) who are also dissatisfied with LA's strong car-oriented culture force. Of course, you can pack up your bags and move to New York City (yeah right, try finding a place you can afford to live there) but perhaps some people also have some kind of loyalty to this city and want to take on the challenge of improving it. And if you're a developer, you might as well build something people are looking for besides just another place catering to cars. You can't fault those who try to go against the predominant force of automobile driving.

It's not that it's impossible to get around LA by mass transit (there's a bunch of people who ride transit in this city including myself), but there is a culture against it. It becomes a mental block more than anything else to most who live in LA. To walk on the streets. To get on that bus. The people behind these TODs are trying to make it more enjoyable for people to step out of their cars (especially if they're scared of taking transit - many of whom, ironically, are Manhattan transplants!). There hasn't been enough critical mass of middle-class people moving near stations, and not enough critical mass of things to do around stations.

Both sides are being addressed and more rail lines are being added. Once that happens, I think LA can definitely be a place where more middle-class people ride mass transit in the future when more and more components conducive to pedestrians come online.

[Kingofthehill]

Small update, excuse the poor quality, the car window was dirty :haha:

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s29/kingofthehill2/PictureorVideo724.jpg
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s29/kingofthehill2/PictureorVideo725.jpg

[Westsidelife]

December 8, 2007

Solair Wilshire

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2381/2096753732_a4f760529e_b.jpg
From Flickr, by fridayinla

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2355/2096755022_ff8c74a69a_b.jpg
From Flickr, by fridayinla

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2349/2096756440_42877d8e68_b.jpg
From Flickr, by fridayinla

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2156/2095980189_3cb9b59a24_b.jpg
From Flickr, by fridayinla

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2143/2095982543_cf61903249_b.jpg
From Flickr, by fridayinla

Gardens at Wilshire Center

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2263/2095998371_ffeaf587f7_b.jpg
From Flickr, by fridayinla

Hotel Emhurst

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2418/2096777282_85cb1c56fb_b.jpg
From Flickr, by fridayinla

Central LA New Learning Center #1

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2132/2096007043_fe7c02065d_b.jpg
From Flickr, by fridayinla

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2256/2096005871_438a305e75_b.jpg
From Flickr, by fridayinla

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2115/2096011251_cf45872cb8_b.jpg
From Flickr, by fridayinla

Wilshire Vermont

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2260/2096789766_1664c291cd_b.jpg
From Flickr, by fridayinla

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2160/2096014115_9a03e3f0ac_b.jpg
From Flickr, by fridayinla

[DominicanLou]

I live a 1min walk away (i've timed it) from that Hauser development. I'm not feelin it at all. Maybe if it turns out like that Wilshire/near La Brea development (with the Subway and Starbucks) it could grow on me.

But, what about that huge empty lot on the other side of Wilshire where they knocked down, what seems like a 1/3 block of apartment buildings??

And then I noticed there are some lofts going up in the Johhnies parking lot next to the 99 Cent stores (it looks odd standing there).

Lastly, theres the Lenner lofts on facing Wilshire directly across from LACMA West. It looks like ZERO progress has been made for the year or so its been in conversion.

Anyone got the info????

[Westsidelife]

The Carlyle

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2294/2530957757_f252ff2eb8_b.jpg
From Flickr, by lacurbed


Wilshire Comstock

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2324/2530931289_0b3f2f2aae_b.jpg
From Flickr, by lacurbed


Wilshire Margot

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2124/2531827970_4d5820362e_b.jpg
From Flickr, by lacurbed

[Echo Park]

shouldn't solair be all glassed up by now? I think i'm gonna go down wilshire this weekend. lotta projects i haven't kept up with lately.

[danparker276]

I saw Solair this weekend and it was mostly glass 80% from the angle I saw. Looked really good.