LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 6.0

[DIESELPOLO]

This photo though...

Originally Posted by dachacon

Tried out 71 above last night. So had a birds eye view of both fires.

[Steve8263]

Was curious to see if I could find anything new about the CA Science Center phase 3 building for the space shuttle Endeavour. They are still keeping it under wraps even tho it's supposed to be open by 2018 and it could be a really big deal for Exposition Park.

That said, I believe these are the people working on the design worth keeping an eye on and here's an early concept render of what likely will be a 190 foot tall building-

http://strxur.com/creating-endeavours-forever-home/

http://www.evidencedesign.com/work--...ce-center.html

http://www.zgf.com/wp-content/upload...the-Boards.pdf
(They did the design of the first 2 phases)

[caligrad]

^^^ I wonder if whatever is chosen will be covered in glass or will the shuttle be exposed to the elements.

Originally Posted by dachacon

Tried out 71 above last night. So had a birds eye view of both fires.
Untitled by David Chacon, on Flickr

Literally everything, old and new, can be bulldozed east of spring street, within the downtown loop.... I truly wouldn't give a damn if that happened.

Originally Posted by sandiego_urban

Electra

Bosa Development is building a 43-story residential tower with 248 condominiums and 411 parking spaces at the southwest corner of Kettner Boulevard and Broadway. This project will rehabilitate the existing historic SDG&E Station B power plant building. Bosa Development donated commercial space along Broadway to the SDSU Art Department to install an art gallery.

And this is what needs to happen all along Broadway (with better architecture of course). I might be the lone wolf to say this but Broadway needs more than a few stores to be as vibrant as we want it to be and it cant rely on all of the surrounding residential units coming online because those people moving in will most likely flock towards fig once all of those projects are done. Broadway needs residential units of its own (and I'm not talking just adaptive reuse). We all love the old charm of Broadway and how it pretty much has went unchanged since its creation, for better or for worse, but it needs residential cut outs like this peeking out through some of the older buildings. The Broadway trade center would have been a perfect candidate for this.

If in fact the code would allow for something like this. We keep the "Old/historic" facades while adding density. Win Win.

[XC1984]

Great! I signed.

[colemonkee]

Originally Posted by caligrad

Literally everything, old and new, can be bulldozed east of spring street, within the downtown loop.... I truly wouldn't give a damn if that happened.

I wouldn't go that far. There are some pretty beautiful pre-war buildings east of Spring - many of which have been restored or are being restored as residential use. Sure, there's a lot of junk, but razing everything sounds pretty draconian.

[SoCalKid]

Originally Posted by caligrad

Literally everything, old and new, can be bulldozed east of spring street, within the downtown loop.... I truly wouldn't give a damn if that happened.

This would mean demolishing all of Little Tokyo (inluding the 140 year old Saint Vibiana cathedral), the Arts District, and a good portion of the historic core.

Even if you mean only south of Little Tokyo and the Arts District, you would be demolishing all of this:

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0452...7i13312!8i6656

And this:

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0482...7i13312!8i6656

annnnd this:

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0442...7i13312!8i6656


annnd this:

https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0421...7i13312!8i6656

.... you get the picture.

Doing that would make mid-century planners look like preservationists with a vision by comparison.

[headcheckjj]

Originally Posted by DIESELPOLO

This photo though...

I thought the exact same thing when I saw it.

"Cheers to the end of the world!"

[caligrad]

^^^ RIGHT ! HAHA only in America.

Originally Posted by colemonkee

I wouldn't go that far. There are some pretty beautiful pre-war buildings east of Spring - many of which have been restored or are being restored as residential use. Sure, there's a lot of junk, but razing everything sounds pretty draconian.

Originally Posted by SoCalKid

This would mean demolishing all of Little Tokyo (inluding the 140 year old Saint Vibiana cathedral), the Arts District, and a good portion of the historic core.

Even if you mean only south of Little Tokyo and the Arts District, you would be demolishing all of this:

.... you get the picture.

Doing that would make mid-century planners look like preservationists with a vision by comparison.

^^^I don't think your pictures helped at all, or at least for the point I'm trying to get across.

Yeah obviously there are a few intersections that are decent, but 1-3 decent intersections cant support the entire area that is 1-2 story hole in the wall shops, warehouses and parking lots. Its my mistake. I thought people would understand where I was coming from without having to be literal and go into more details.

Basically what I'm saying is I wish a developer, just one, would have the balls to break through the Spring/Main street wall and start developing some decently priced units in that area. I wasn't referring to Little Tokyo or the Arts District (even though they both still need a lot of help) I was referring to the exact area in the picture.

All of the developers are currently focused on hanging around Fig and South Park but the land just east of Spring/Main is not even half the price. If I had billions in expendable cash, I would let the Chinese Developers and Onni group have South park and Fig, but I would push through Spring/Main and be the first over there.

You want quick zoning law changes, I'm willing to bet that city hall would absolutely jump on that.

[King Kill 'em]

Here's what I think. It's all the 1-2 story warehouses that need to go. That's basically half of Skid Row and 90% of the Fashion/Industrial District. Obviously save all the old tall buildings. Save a lot of the 3-4 story brick ones too. Also demolish the ugly newer fashion district buildings with the parking on top.

[caligrad]

^^^ Jesus finally somebody gets me HAHA, I swear you're the only one that knows what I'm trying to say sometimes

[King Kill 'em]

Originally Posted by caligrad

You want quick zoning law changes, I'm willing to bet that city hall would absolutely jump on that.

I would want them to establish a plan for parks in the area though. I'd like to see at least 100 acres of parks in what we'll call the untouched area of downtown, with one large park that's at least 50 acres. Take several blocks of nothing but one story warehouses and make a park.

[caligrad]

^^^ I agree. I think what would be really cool is if our downtown was centered around a large park, where as most cities are centered around "the tallest" building. Looking at an aerial view of the downtown Loop, a park in the center would be awesome with plenty of pocket parks through out, as you would say, the untouched area of downtown. An added bonus would be if the city/county/state finally started work on the river revitalization and buried the rail lines or simply enclose them and cover them with more park space that connected to the river.

[NativeOrange]

For the "Central Park" idea, I wouldn't mind seeing everything between 5th and 7th, from Los Angeles to Wall Street razed for a park. Take out the portion of Maple and 6th streets that intersect.

The little series of 2-3 story historic buildings on the east side of Wall St north of 6th would make an excellent frontage for the parks northeastern side.

[Mojeda101]

Everything east of Maple St. for me. Save the buildings of value and transform the neighborhood into something positive. Toss in a few 20 story homeless housing towers and they'll be off the streets. I'd love to have a nice large park, but considering it'll be in Skid Row it'll turn into a massive homeless encampment. There'd have to be serious security. I don't see that part of town getting developed for another decade or two, but I hope when it does, it'll be something massive. You don't have to overthink it either, just make this. It's not rocket science.

[King Kill 'em]

I started making a map with ideas for parks in LA. I started with Downtown.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1H9...Dk&usp=sharing

[NativeOrange]

Originally Posted by King Kill 'em

I started making a map with ideas for parks in LA. I started with Downtown.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1H9...Dk&usp=sharing

Save a couple nice little buildings for possible restaurants, cafes, or other attractions and I would totally agree with that Central Park you've drawn out.

[Valyrian Steel]

Originally Posted by headcheckjj

I thought the exact same thing when I saw it.

"Cheers to the end of the world!"

Reminds me of this. (Game of Thrones fans will get it)

[cesar90]

• Video Link

• Video Link

[SoCalKid]

Originally Posted by caligrad

^^^ RIGHT ! HAHA only in America.



I thought people would understand where I was coming from without having to be literal and go into more details.

Lol sorry, almost immediately after posting my response I thought to myself "he's probably just speaking in hyperbole to make a point"

Kill em' King, I like your ideas with the parks. If I had unlimited money I'd make that plan happen myself. Unfortunately, most of it could never happen.

The golf course part of the equation is interesting though. From a land value standpoint it really makes no sense to keep them as golf courses (the revenue from fees just isn't nearly enough). I would not be surprised if we saw one bought with a plan to develop them at some point in the future. Better than a golf course, not as good as a park. But I'm sure any development plan would be under a lot of pressure to keep a decent chunk as open space.

[caligrad]

^^^ Its all good , it was my fault. I'm still trying to figure out a way to get my points across without writing entire articles for the news papers HAHA. I tend to write a lot and do a lot of self editing. if you guys could only see the stuff I write before I edit, you would all ask that I be banned because of the immense size of my posts So much to say, so little space to say it in.

In regards to the parks, I like kingkillems outlines and ideas. One thing I might tweak with the central park outline though would be to shrink the eastern boundary from Gladys ave to Stanford ave, dig a trench for 7th street between maple and Stanford and expand the park northward to 6th street. I think that would be the perfect size.

But I'm still team "hostile takeover of Country clubs/golf courses". Well at the ridiculously large ones.