LOS ANGELES | METRO Project Rundown 2.0 (non-downtown)

[JDRCRASH]

^ That's a possibility, but still all evidence supports that the station box will be at AotS and Constellation.

[pesto]

300 Hundred: I hadn't thought of that, but you're right. The Wilshire condo corridor is actually very nicely done, architecturally; it managed to escape the bland modernism that many residential highrises in Eastern and Canadian cities got in huge numbers. You have to get lucky on when you chose to develop. Westwood office towers are also generally attractive, not counting the early ones from the 1960's.

[BrandonJXN]

Lol...300 Hundred.

[bjornson]

Pesto, I assume you're not a fan of modernism or anything stemming from it era (20s-60s) and you're more into postmodern stuff. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[colemonkee]

Some good news on the stalled Madrone project in Hollywood, now known as "The Avenue", from the LA Times:



Image Source: Los Angeles Times

Stalled Hollywood condo project gets new life
With new owners and funding, the development is changing to apartments and will include a triangular arrangement of five-, six- and seven-story buildings and space for shops on the ground floor.

The Los Angeles residential investment advisor bought the 180-unit project a year ago in a trustee sale. The original developer, veteran Irvine builder John Laing Homes, had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February 2009 and stopped work on the Madrone. The company liquidated its assets the following June.

The padlocked project turned into an eyesore as the seven-story complex - clad in only sheetrock and surrounded by scaffolding - weathered in the elements. It was one of several large residential developments that languished in 2009 as the housing market collapsed.

Resmark intends to finish the Avenue by June, Goodman said. He predicts that the new building will be able to compete in the area's crowded apartment market.


Read the rest of the story here: http://www.latimes.com/business/real...,5479839.story

[LosAngelesBeauty]

My comment on that story Colemonkee just posted on LA Times:


BrighamYen at 12:38 PM August 16, 2010

Glad to see this dense development take place in Hollywood where the infrastructure exists and will connect residents to the ever growing subway/light-rail network made possible by Measure R, Villaraigosa and his 30/10 plan.


The development's size and mass, from the air, looks no different than something you would find, a dime a dozen, in mature urban cities like Washington D.C., London, Paris, New York, Tokyo, Taipei, etc.


LA could use more of these mixed-use projects around the current and future subway stations to increase population density levels that support the ridership needed and businesses that follow to cater to that population density, which gives people more reason to use the subway to get to the things they need.

[colemonkee]

^ Good comments.

I see this project from the air and I see some serious green or solar roofage opportunities. Twould be a waste not to use that much roof space for good.

[pesto]

bjornson: correct. I find a few of them powerful for their sleekness, stability or elegance; but mostly I find them uninteresting. I admit it's all a matter of taste but I prefer color, shape, movement and detail. I cherish the Romanesques, Gothics, Churriguresque, deco, beaux arts, etc., especially since LA doesn't have a lot of them. Most the modernist I am happy to see go.

[Steve2726]

It looks like the Emerson College project on Sunset has all necessary approvals, here's another set of renders-

http://morphopedia.com/projects/emer...lery/images/1/

[pesto]

steve: thanks for the info. I find that these renderings really make me a fan of the building.

To repeat myself: the problem in that picture is not the Emerson, it's the rest of the picture. Sunset is one of two leading streets in the creative section of the creative center of the world and it looks like blah. There should be similarly bold buildings from the 101 to Highland. 10-20 stories is not even an issue, since there are already buildings of this size approved or built.

[LosAngelesBeauty]

Originally Posted by pesto

steve: thanks for the info. I find that these renderings really make me a fan of the building.

To repeat myself: the problem in that picture is not the Emerson, it's the rest of the picture. Sunset is one of two leading streets in the creative section of the creative center of the world and it looks like blah. There should be similarly bold buildings from the 101 to Highland. 10-20 stories is not even an issue, since there are already buildings of this size approved or built.

Exactly, I completely agree. The problem isn't Emerson, it's the rest of the crap surrounding it.

[JDRCRASH]

About that Madrone project posted by Colemonkee...isn't Marshfield street a really old PE ROW?

[sopas ej]

Yes it is. The Hollywood Blvd. PE line...


uncanny.net

...continued west for a few blocks along Hawthorn Street and then veered back onto its own right-of-way diagonally southwest, going in between houses. If you look at the satellite map on Google for the intersection of Sunset and Gardner, you can clearly see the old PE right-of-way. In fact at that intersection, the right-of-way exists on the NE corner as a driveway into a parking lot behind the Moun of Tunis Moroccan restaurant.

Here's an old map from 1953:

uncanny.net

1950s

uncanny.net

Sunset and Gardner, 1950s:

uncanny.net

[JDRCRASH]

Man that first picture is just beautiful. Too bad all that is gone.

[BrandonJXN]

From Curbed:

A reader sends in the following photo: "They have started to move dirt at 10000 Santa Monica, the bankrupt property that was to have the Jean Nouvel condo project. Any idea whats going on?" No idea what's going on! Last we heard, the site was tied up in litigation relating to SunCal and Lehman Bros.

[JDRCRASH]

Somebody on Curbed said that it needs to be cleaned up before a contract between the buyer and seller of the lot can close.

[sopas ej]

From the Los Angeles Times:

Architecture review: A bold landmark by the Expo Line

Eric Owen Moss' Samitaur Tower in Culver City will display video and artwork visible to transit riders on the light-rail line.
By Christopher Hawthorne, Los Angeles Times Architecture Critic
September 1, 2010




For the most part, the buildings designed for spots near new mass transit lines in Southern California have been pretty underwhelming architecturally. And it's easy to be cynical about many of them. After all, putting a new apartment building or mixed-use complex close to an existing transit line — or a transit line that may potentially, possibly be built in the future — often absolves developers of a range of architectural and urban-planning sins, including packing in far more density than a site can comfortably absorb.

But a few genuinely thought-provoking responses to the region's hard-won progress on the mass-transit front are beginning to emerge. Among them is the recently completed Samitaur Tower, a 72-foot-high weathered-steel structure designed by Eric Owen Moss for a site at the corner of National Boulevard and Hayden Avenue in Culver City.

The tower is a campanile — an unorthodox and modestly sized one, to be sure — for a new stage of urbanism in Southern California, which thanks to the slowly growing transit network, among other cultural shifts, is beginning to emerge as a less atomized and more public place than the old clichés would have you believe.

The tower will overlook the new light-rail Expo Line, which is under construction from downtown through Culver City and will open next year. (A planned second phase would extend the line to Santa Monica.) A section of the rail line runs alongside National Boulevard, practically at the tower's feet, with a pair of stops within easy walking distance. The tower's developers, Frederick and Laurie Samitaur-Smith, see it as a prototype and hope to build seven more along the Expo Line.

The open-air tower, which according to the Samitaur-Smiths won't open to the public until early next year, consists of five platforms wrapped in screens made of translucent acrylic. The screens are designed to display a range of video and artwork, making the structure, which Moss has called an "information tower," an island of alternative signage in L.A.'s sea of commercial billboards.

Once it's fully in operation, it will likely play host to a mixture of parties, art exhibits and openings, as well as serving as a symbolic gateway to the Hayden Tract, a former industrial area that the Samitaur-Smiths, with help from Moss, have been patiently and inventively redeveloping for more than two decades.

[...]

Read the rest by clicking this.

[LosAngelesBeauty]

I'm getting goose bumps just thinking about riding the Expo Line next year!!!

[colemonkee]

^ What sucks is my office is two blocks from that Samitaur tower, but in December, before the Expo Line opens, we're moving our offices to El Segundo. I soooooo could have taken the Expo Line to work every day once it reached the La Cienega stop. But noooooooo!

[LosAngelesBeauty]

Originally Posted by colemonkee

^ What sucks is my office is two blocks from that Samitaur tower, but in December, before the Expo Line opens, we're moving our offices to El Segundo. I soooooo could have taken the Expo Line to work every day once it reached the La Cienega stop. But noooooooo!

I am hoping that more CEOs will choose to locate their companies within access to rail when our system expands further.

I truly believe that companies (in addition to tax breaks/strict economics) base their decisions on a number of other factors - some more emotional than you would expect.

For example, CNN in Hollywood had planned to leave and lease a space on Wilshire/San Vicente (near the Jewish center), but soon afterward, Hollywood started to reach a critical mass of substantiality (new restaurants, clubs, mixed-use, entertainment venues, etc.) that translated into positive energy. This cluster of good energy actually caused CNN to reconsider and they decided to renege on their relocation efforts and INSTEAD, signed a NEW LEASE in their old location AND upgraded the property with new signage and more interesting street front design, contributing to that pot of good energy that begets more.

That simple concept means that if more areas of LA serviced by rail evolve toward the direction of Hollywood, by becoming their own areas of substantiality, it means it attracts more companies.

Think about it.

What about Miracle Mile?

In less than a decade, it will hopefully be serviced by two subway stops (La Brea and Fairfax). With a great stock of historic buildings along Wilshire and charming historic multi-family housing branching off in the side streets (Cochran, Detroit, etc.), how will the area be viewed by companies? Will more restaurants want to open there? Will more galleries and shops want to open next to LACMA? Will the Miracle Mile become somewhat of an amalgam of cultural institutions and creative new culinary establishments?

And at the geographic center of LA (West Central), will more companies choose to lease office space there due to the cultural prestige associated with a Miracle Mile address?


All these questions will be answered in the coming years, but it's not too hard to imagine LA evolving into a mature urban city as people start to realize how much more enjoyable it is to walk the streets instead of driving them.