First Look at the Re-redesigned Park Fifth

Image: DLANC

Less than one year after unveiling substantially downsized plans for Downtown's erstwhile Park Fifth site, developer MacFarlane Partners has opted to rework the entire project.  The San Francisco-based investment management firm will give a first glimpse of the redesigned - and slightly upsized - development program to the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council's Planning and Land Use Committe this Tuesday.

Like the previous Harley Ellis Devereaux-designed proposal, the retooled Park Fifth complex will consist of mid-rise and high-rise components.  However, the new design from Portland-based Ankrom Moisan Architects features minor changes to the overall specs of the project, including an increase in proposed residential density from 615 to 660 apartments and a decrease in cumulative commercial area from 17,000 square feet to slightly under 14,000 square feet.

Moisan's new design calls for several alterations to Park Fifth's 24-story tower, which is slated for the corner of Fifth and Olive Streets.  The proposed building's peak height has increased to 255 feet above-grade, as well as its width in a north-south direction.  Unlike in the earlier plan, the high-rise building will comprise the bulk of the Park Fifth's residential density, featuring 348 apartments and roughly 5,800 square feet of ground-floor commercial uses.  The tower will be "similar in feel," to other Moisan-designed projects, which include South Park's Luma and Elleven condominium complexes.

Meet 5-OH, Park Fifth's Downsized Replacement

When San Francisco-based MacFarlane Partners announced their intent to purchase the former Park Fifth site, they indicated that their plans halved the square footage of the original proposal.  Now we actually get a look at what they have in mind, via a presentation to the DLANC.  Once intended to give rise to skyline altering towers of 76 and 43 stories, the surface parking lot across from Pershing Square will instead birth a 24-story residential tower and a low-rise apartment building.  The Harley Ellis Deveraux designed complex, dubbed "5-OH," would create a cumulative 615 residential units and 17,000 square feet of street level retail.  The 300-unit residential tower, standing 241 feet tall, would be clad in aluminum, sandstone, and cement panels.  Both buildings would sit above a semi-subterranean parking garage, with room for 657 automobiles and 624 bicycles.  Similar to South Park's 801 Olive Street, 5-OH would offer rooftop amenities including a clubhouse, an outdoor pool, a landscaped courtyard, and barbeque pits.  The project's 315-unit low-rise structure would offer similar rooftop facilities, with residential access via a private paseo between Hill and Olive Streets.  Of course, this all seems a bit underwhelming when considering what could have been.  The original Kohn Pedersen Fox project would have created Los Angeles' third tallest building, with a design that flawlessly integrated itself with the adjacent Title Guarantee Building.  Alas, like so many proposed developments from before the real estate bubble, it was not meant to be.