LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 6.0

[BillinGlendaleCA]

Originally Posted by bhunsberger

Anyone here aware of the Chick-Fil-A going in at 7th/Metro Center? Kinda cool. Also, makes me think - why is there no McDonald's downtown?? Was there ever? Except for the one near Santee Alley which closed?

I can think of 2 McDonald's that were in downtown: one was in the Fine Arts Building at 811 7th Street and another was up the escalators from the Hope Street entrance at the Wells Fargo Center.

[Blesha13]

Originally Posted by Mojeda101

I frequent the one on Washington & Olive but I guess you're right. Wasn't there one on Broadway that shut down a few years ago?

Yeah, there was also one on Broadway between 3rd and 4th. Don't know when it shut down though.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Originally Posted by bhunsberger

Anyone here aware of the Chick-Fil-A going in at 7th/Metro Center? Kinda cool. Also, makes me think - why is there no McDonald's downtown?? Was there ever? Except for the one near Santee Alley which closed?

There was one on Broadway near gcm, another on 7th and flower in the fine arts building and there was one at city national underground, all of which have closed. People don't eat McDonald's as much anymore, especially the new demographic in downtown LA

[bhunsberger]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan

There was one on Broadway near gcm, another on 7th and flower in the fine arts building and there was one at city national underground, all of which have closed. People don't eat McDonald's as much anymore, especially the new demographic in downtown LA

I am not surprised all the locations but 7th and Flower were a dud. I am kinda bummed about it! Hopefully with a bunch of new places coming to DT they will come back somewhere along 7th, or so.

[Easy]

Originally Posted by Eightball

This is true but is also simplistic ... The main thing is we need to build housing for them... Without preconditions.

Like you, most of the homeless that I see struggle with mental illness, drug/alcohol dependency or both. Many are at a point where they literally cannot take care of themselves. If they can’t take care of themselves, they can’t take care of a house.

In my opinion most of the people living on the streets downtown need lots of help just to function day to day. In that vein, they would need some sort of supervised, group housing. From there they could hopefully transition to more independent living. But it will be a process and probably a cycle of people going back and forth. Doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t help them, but unless people that can’t take care of themselves are forcibly rounded up and committed like in the old days (which in a great many ways was more humane), we’ll have that cycle.

For many others I agree that we need lots more beds and some sort of path to self-sufficiency.

[Easy]

Originally Posted by BigCityOfDreams

Recent post-rain pics of LA State Historic Park. Been waiting since it opened to see the ponds begin to fill up. It will be a wonderful place once the birds, and hopefully someday fish make their way over from the LA River.

Love this park. Just wish that it were closer to South Park. Was there Monday and the water in your photo was already gone. I imagined that the bridge was designed to look over a small pond, but unless it’s just rained it looks over a bunch of rocks.

[Easy]

Originally Posted by bhunsberger

I am not surprised all the locations but 7th and Flower were a dud. I am kinda bummed about it! Hopefully with a bunch of new places coming to DT they will come back somewhere along 7th, or so.

Maybe but hold your breath. There used to be fast food places all over downtown, but with rising rents and changing eating habits most of them closed 15-20 years ago. If they come back my guess is that they would be corporate owned and designed for marketing, not profits. Right now DTLA is in a weird place where absent many more tourists, it doesn’t make sense for profit or marketing.

[Easy]

Originally Posted by hughfb3

Welp.... it will be 2 years next month since the start of this new thread. Let’s look at where we’ve come



So we’ve literally built everything from the top table. All of the proposals are completed or under construction from the start of this cycle in the table. It’s time we hear about these coming projects and possible start/completion dates. Need more word from the likes of Onni on its 2 projects, Olympia, Shenzhen hazen. Updates on groundbreaking’s anyone??

I’m a little surprised that we haven’t seen a groundbreaking from Cambria and I would expect Shenzhen to happen any week. Maybe both will happen after the all star game. I don’t know what they have at all star games, but maybe someone rented the lots for parking and/or “fan experience” activities.

[blackcat23]

Hotel conversion at Olympic/Los Angeles

[bhunsberger]

Took this earlier today. Beautiful, as always.

[cesar90]

That's a great view Bhunsberger, also taken today



• Video Link

[bobbyv]

From the LA times:






http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...121-story.html

[black_crow]

Originally Posted by bobbyv

From the LA times:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...121-story.html

“We will be fully under construction in early fall,” said Ken Himmel.

That sounds good. Things are moving forward.
39-story residential tower...

[dktshb]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan

There was one on Broadway near gcm, another on 7th and flower in the fine arts building and there was one at city national underground, all of which have closed. People don't eat McDonald's as much anymore, especially the new demographic in downtown LA

Yeah, that is a national trend and a good one.

[dktshb]

Originally Posted by black_crow

“We will be fully under construction in early fall,” said Ken Himmel.

That sounds good. Things are moving forward.
39-story residential tower...

We'll see. How many times have we heard this? I like your optimism but why can't they start now if they are "moving forward?"

I also thought this development was going to go all the way to Hill Street, but I guess not. Too bad.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by bobbyv

From the LA times:

Visitors who come at all hours every day to marvel at architect Frank Gehry’s gleaming Walt Disney Concert Hall routinely turn their backs on the eyesore across Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles.

The shabby open-air parking structure known as “the Tinker Toy garage” has been a public embarrassment for decades. Now, its days are numbered.

“We will be fully under construction in early fall,” said Ken Himmel, president of Related Cos.’ mixed-use development division. The company got the contract to build the sprawling Grand Avenue Project in 2004 but repeatedly postponed work on the key parcel across the street from the concert hall on Grand at 1st Street as the recession and doubts about its viability slowed progress.

For his part, Gehry said he can now “live within the constraints” of Related’s budget and believes the Grand will stand out from other big mixed-use developments downtown.

And it will blend with Disney Hall through shapes, colors and materials, Gehry said, so that the new complex is “not antithetical” to the distinctive hall or “in your face.”

“You’ll see a lightness in the building,” Gehry said. “That’s in the way we are relating to Disney hall. We are not building heavy stuff.”

With the new development, Gehry will also be able to complete a trick he baked into his design for Disney Hall — its surfaces were carefully arranged to receive light projections from across the street. When the Los Angeles Philharmonic is performing inside, the live concert can be shown on multiple walls of Disney Hall to entertain people outside and in the Grand.

“We selected the metal surface that tested best for projection,” Gehry said of Disney Hall. “You close that piece of Grand Avenue, put some chairs out there and you’ve got something special. We’re not just building buildings, we’re building places.”

Philanthropist Eli Broad, who has supported Grand Avenue improvements for decades and was instrumental in the erection of Disney Hall, predicted the Grand “will make certain Grand Avenue is viewed as the cultural and civic district of this region of 14 million people.” It’s already one of the region’s top draws. Broad’s contemporary art museum, which opened next to Disney Hall in 2015, by itself draws 750,000 visitors a year, Broad said.

I just feel bad that ppl like Gehry & Broad have had to wait so long to see dtla reach this moment in time.

their predecessors....ppl who were in their 70s or 80s back in the 1990s or early 2000s, much less the 1980s or 1970s....had to deal with a dt falling apart for decades. Ppl who'd pass away long before dt reached a point where they hoped it would end up.....closer to where it is today.

I hope younger ppl fully realize just how much of a long journey & struggle it has been for LA to finally see this moment in time.

[DJM19]

Still looks like two towers stacked on top of a 3-story suburban strip mall. It could look better if the material at the base was a limestone or something along those lines.

[ConstructDTLA]

Originally Posted by dktshb

We'll see. How many times have we heard this? I like your optimism but why can't they start now if they are "moving forward?"

I also thought this development was going to go all the way to Hill Street, but I guess not. Too bad.

I believe they're fully permitted to tear down the parking structure. They could start that in the next 90 days, then have the site prepped and cleared by fall for construction.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by ConstructDTLA

I believe they're fully permitted to tear down the parking structure.

The city's site for Dept of building & Safety regrettably still indicates otherwise.

100 S GRAND AVE 90012

Application / Permit 17019-10000-04924
Plan Check / Job No. B17LA20947
Group Building
Type Bldg-Demolition
Sub-Type Commercial
Work Description DEMO PARKING STRUCTURE, CLEAR LOT AND FENCE
Permit Issued No
Current Status Application Submittal on 11/15/2017

100 S GRAND AVE 90012
Application / Permit 17030-10000-05550
Plan Check / Job No. B17LA14487
Group Building
Type Grading
Sub-Type Commercial
Work Description EARLY START EXCAVATION AND GRADING for new highrise building.
Permit Issued No
Current Status Reviewed by Supervisor on 12/28/2017

those large blocks of land sitting along 1st st have been a major wasteland of dtla for decades. They'd have been filled in yrs ago if the city's economic & social vibrancy hadn't shifted westwards towards the ocean over 50 yrs ago. LA still is paying a price for not creating a nicer set of hoods east of Fig St or east of MacArthur park starting over 90 yrs ago.

Today, all of this is not helped one bit by a city permitting process that is notoriously slow & costly.

[Illithid Dude]

Excited that one of downtowns largest dead zones will be gone but this is the ugliest design yet