LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 6.0 - Page 306

ThebiteofSuarez · #**6101** Posted **Oct 9, 2017, 8:34 PM**

These pics were uploaded by AC Martin via their Facebook page for the Mack Urban tower. I'm not sure how to downsize the pics from a hosted website.

https://www.facebook.com/ACMartinInc...type=3&theater

Illithid Dude · #**6102** Posted **Oct 9, 2017, 10:10 PM**

That tower got value engineered so badly...

Sun Belt · #**6103** Posted **Oct 9, 2017, 10:40 PM**

Incredible what's happening downtown.

Nice pictures Wonderland!!

ConstructDTLA · #**6104** Posted **Oct 9, 2017, 11:25 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

That tower got value engineered so badly...

For sure. It is the ugliest tower of this cycle (only competition would be Onni's 50-story & the Marriott). I posted that on the Development Facebook page and nobody agreed with me. Collective poor taste is 1 of the many reasons LA gets away with consistently terrible large architecture.

Mack Urban 1120 S Grand by Hunter, on Flickr

Apex 2 by Hunter, on Flickr

Oceanwide Plaza & Circa by Hunter, on Flickr

1133 S Hope by Hunter, on Flickr

Onni 12th & Hope by Hunter, on Flickr

Downtown LA Skyline by Hunter, on Flickr

Hotel Hoxton / LA Railway by Hunter, on Flickr

Oceanwide Plaza & Circa by Hunter, on Flickr

Circa by Hunter, on Flickr

Oceanwide Plaza & Circa by Hunter, on Flickr

BrandonJXN · #**6105** Posted **Oct 10, 2017, 1:25 AM**

I wouldn't just call it a LA problem. People should get out more as ugly architecture is not just in DTLA. For better or worse, I'd say ubiquitous. Chicago is getting quite a bit of these towers with large podiums with parking garages attached. Or wasted space. A building here called The Hudson. It's takes up a whole block but on one side of the block is a 20 something story tower, which is attacted to a long retail space (housing a Starbucks).

http://cdn.skyrisecities.com/sites/d...1153-72624.png

I'm not sure what these developers are thinking however. Both here and there but if you were to have such a large parking garage, maybe wrap it in apartments.

black_crow · #**6106** Posted **Oct 10, 2017, 2:33 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ConstructDTLA

For sure. It is the ugliest tower of this cycle (only competition would be Onni's 50-story & the Marriott). I posted that on the Development Facebook page and nobody agreed with me.

I wouldn't agree with you either, but you can't argue taste.

Still.. I agree with your photo update.
Good job Hunter, good job.

scania · #**6107** Posted **Oct 10, 2017, 3:59 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrandonJXN

I wouldn't just call it a LA problem. People should get out more as ugly architecture is not just in DTLA. For better or worse, I'd say ubiquitous. Chicago is getting quite a bit of these towers with large podiums with parking garages attached. Or wasted space. A building here called The Hudson. It's takes up a whole block but on one side of the block is a 20 something story tower, which is attacted to a long retail space (housing a Starbucks).

http://cdn.skyrisecities.com/sites/d...1153-72624.png

I'm not sure what these developers are thinking however. Both here and there but if you were to have such a large parking garage, maybe wrap it in apartments.

I agree within reason...every city has towers going up that forumers and bloggers think are hideous.

homebucket · #**6108** Posted **Oct 10, 2017, 4:10 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ConstructDTLA

For sure. It is the ugliest tower of this cycle (only competition would be Onni's 50-story & the Marriott). I posted that on the Development Facebook page and nobody agreed with me. Collective poor taste is 1 of the many reasons LA gets away with consistently terrible large architecture.

Reminds me of SF's awful Jasper building. Not sure why there's such an obsession with vertical white lines.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasper_(San_Francisco)

citywatch · #**6109** Posted **Oct 10, 2017, 4:11 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ConstructDTLA

Collective poor taste is 1 of the many reasons LA gets away with consistently terrible large architecture.

although I appreciate the way you help keep this thread alive with your pics, I have noticed you in the past....but right now too.....being rather doomish about LA. I've been accused of being the same way too, but my unhappiness with the city has often been based on the context of things a long time ago, not so much based on it today or in the future.

if everyone were transported to the distant past....& we were dealing with LA back when this vid was taken.....I'd have to agree about your criticism of the poor taste of many ppl in the city. Those were the ppl who built all the cheap little bldgs over 60 yrs ago.....of brick, masonry & flat asphalt shingle roofs.....still visible in your photos of new devlpt.

look at how much of dtla was weather beaten and rundown back in the 1950s....

• Video Link

there are some ppl who'll agree with you about ppl in today's LA having bad taste.....but a few of them are the same ones who also claim a lot of goodness was lost when old LA....such as bunker hill.....was torn down. What??! I don't get that POV.

Based on old shots of dt decades ago, I don't see much that impresses me....not a whole lot in LA back then indicated great taste....actually just the opposite.

I'll take LA in 2017 a thousand times over LA in 1957....the few nicer old landmark bldgs, such as the bradbury or the Grand central mkt, from way back then notwithstanding.

BrandonJXN · #**6110** Posted **Oct 10, 2017, 3:20 PM**

Hell I'll take the LA of 2017 over the LA of 2007. I can't take the complaints of parking podiums too seriously as it shows that a lot of people fail to see the bigger picture. Those podiums might be ugly but people have to park. That's just facts. However, those podiums have residential on top of them and retail on the bottom. Be it Starbucks, Jamba Juice or something else. 10 years ago, those were all lots. Deadzones. Voids. We all would like buildings with quality architecture yes but when you look at the bigger picture, DTLA is a completely different place from 10 years ago and a great deal of that can be attributed to those buildings with ugly podiums.

citywatch · #**6111** Posted **Oct 10, 2017, 4:14 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrandonJXN

10 years ago, those were all lots. Deadzones. Voids.

I'd say more ppl look at LA....judge the city.....the way you do....including locals & visitors.....than urbanists who are very fussy about new devlpt not meeting their specific standards & guidelines.

It's not that I don't understand the point that ppl into good design & fans of jane jacobs are trying to make....or their preferences.....it's that their emphasis, in the full context of dtla, often makes me think of this....

• Video Link

shakman · #**6112** Posted **Oct 10, 2017, 4:33 PM**

Will the the Circa parking decks be exposed as shown in he pics? Will there to a facade on the above grade parking levels?

colemonkee · #**6113** Posted **Oct 10, 2017, 6:38 PM**

^ There should be some sort of covering over the parking deck, but how that will end up is unclear as there are variations of that in different renderings. But there will be something going up over them.

blackcat23 · #**6114** Posted **Oct 10, 2017, 9:22 PM**

Nine-unit, 375-sf retail building in Chinatown

101 affordable units at 459 Hartford

citywatch · #**6115** Posted **Oct 11, 2017, 2:40 AM**

I came across this pic in the norish los angeles forum & thought it shows clearly why judging new devlpt in dtla in 2017....which has often replaced old devlpt or old sites in dt......takes on a different meaning when seeing what things were like over 60 yrs ago.

Only thing I wish were still in existence is the old atlantic richfield bldg, while a bldg I don't miss....the old statler hilton bldg....has since been replaced by the new wilshire grand.

what's now the standard hotel, however, in the former superior old bldg, deserves to still exist.....which it does.....along with the classic california club bldg next to it. But in general, if ppl in LA have poor taste today, they had downright awful taste a long time ago...

Tourmaline/static1.squarespacec.com

Jordan de California · #**6116** Posted **Oct 11, 2017, 6:20 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ConstructDTLA

Collective poor taste is 1 of the many reasons LA gets away with consistently terrible large architecture.

High-rise buildings are still, after all these years, fundamentally just "machines that make the land pay." Aesthetics have almost always been of secondary concern to developers for that reason. Good aesthetics are good marketing, and it's true that there's also plenty of bad marketing everywhere else, so why should architecture be any exception?

As for parking podiums, someday when those freeways are replaced by hyperloops and self-driving electric Ubers, we won't need as many cars and their infrastructure. New uses can be written over existing typologies. Parking podiums will be an interesting way to provide substantial additional space for local warehouses, enclosed retail shops, and low-rent apartments, maybe even all mixed together in the same structure to create truly authentic and pedestrian neighborhoods.

caligrad · #**6117** Posted **Oct 12, 2017, 2:28 AM**

Surprised no one here is talking about this

https://urbanize.la/post/aecom-revea...teway-proposal

Activating the LA river (the downtown portion)

36,620 NEW HOUSING UNITS ????

7.7 miles of new bike lanes

The 101 freeway cap

The Rail yards FINALLY being capped with a huge park

300 acres of new park land (ACTUAL PARKS)

Mention of the Santa Ana light rail project.

150,00 new jobs, all within distance or rail access

Not to mention a revamped Union Station

Pipe dream. Maybe. But atleast somebdoy is making sense. They want a private/Public partnership for the overall project. I don't care how it gets done, just get it done before the Olympics get here. Not THAT impossible.

Car(e)-Free LA · #**6118** Posted **Oct 12, 2017, 4:09 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by caligrad

They want a private/Public partnership for the overall project.

*Cough cough Amazon*

blackcat23 · #**6119** Posted **Oct 12, 2017, 11:42 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Car(e)-Free LA

*Cough cough Amazon*

While I can't realistically see Amazon landing in Southern California, I wouldn't be surprised if the LA County application winds up proposing Union Station/Piper Tech as a potential location. Both are government-owned; Union Station has over 3 million square feet of buildable FAR, and Piper Tech could easily be rezoned for commercial development, as has been proposed a few times over the years.

LosAngelesSportsFan · #**6120** Posted **Oct 13, 2017, 12:27 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by blackcat23

While I can't realistically see Amazon landing in Southern California, I wouldn't be surprised if the LA County application winds up proposing Union Station/Piper Tech as a potential location. Both are government-owned; Union Station has over 3 million square feet of buildable FAR, and Piper Tech could easily be rezoned for commercial development, as has been proposed a few times over the years.

would be ideal (for us, not Amazon)