Wilshire Coronado Condominums to Rise Near MacArthur Park

Wilshire Coronado Condominiums

Tucked away on the western edge of McArthur Park, a mixed-use development will rise on Wilshire Blvd.  The New York based Somerset Group has been working out details with the LA City Council regarding construction of the Wilshire Coronado Condominiums, a 7 story mixed-use building featuring 154 luxury condominiums and 8,500 square feet of retail.  The project will have studio, one and two bedroom units, set to open in Fall 2015.  Design work comes from Rio Clementi Hale Studios and DeStefano Partners.

This project represents a scaled down version of the Somerset Group's original 18 story proposal for the site, also designed by Rios Clementi Hale.

The now outdated design of the Wilshire Coronado proposal, featuring a tall parking podium.

I am curious to know if Somerset is serious about developing this project as for sale units.  While I am a fan of the Westlake/McArthur Park neighborhood, I don't see it as a place for "luxury condominiums," in the near future.  Then again, Somerset's proposal is one of several new developments that have popped up around McArthur Park.  Perhaps this is the direction the neighborhood will take in the long run.

•  Wilshire Coronado Condominiums (Somerset Group)

Four Floors of Senior Housing Coming to Playa Vista

Are you a senior citizen who has always wanted to live across the street from where Howard Hughes once built a giant wooden airplane?  Then this new development might be for you:

12481 W FIELDING CIRCLE 90094

SENIOR INDEPENDENT HOUSING WITH 83 APARTMENT UNITS OVER 4-STORIES

Sure, the neighborhood doesn't look like much based on Google Maps images from 2011, but there's actually a flurry of construction activity going on right now.

On the other side of Jefferson Blvd, the 196 unit Millenium Del Rey is topped out with cladding slowly attaching itself to the wood framework.

Image from The Millenium.

And of course, much of that remaining empty space from the bird's eye image will go towards the $260 million Runway at Playa Vista.

Images from RunwayPlayaVista

Mixed-use buildings, wide sidewalks, pedestrian paseos, and even people on bicycles.  Everything screams "new urbanism."

Can't wait to pick up my Nyquil at DVS and pick up bread at Pocaccia.  Maybe I'll open up an account at West Bank?

Designed by acclaimed Los Angeles based architect Johnson Fain, Runway will provide a much needed centerpiece for the currently fragmented Playa Vista development.  Right now, eleven acres of vacant land separates the residential section on the west from the office buildings and park space on the east.  When completed, the complex will bring 220 residential units, 25,000 square feet of office space, and 200,000 square feet of retail (including a Whole Foods).

Of course, it's going to be a while before we're looking at anything resembling the above images, given that the site currently looks something like this:

Not much more than sticks in the ground at this point.

A First Look at the Fairfax/San Vicente Mixed-Use Development

In mid-July, the Park La Brea News announced that Shalhevet High School was planning to rebuild its campus and add an adjacent mixed-use development.  Now that some more information on the project has been made public, we can get a better look at what's to come.

The proposed development, as seen from the southwest.  Image from Alliance Residential Company.

For the purpose of this blog, I don't have much interest in the school building.  Sorry Shalhevet, it's not personal (just business).  So we're going to focus on the residential structure, the specs of which read as follows:

 ...a mixed-use residential project with approximately 149 residential dwelling units and approximately 4,280 square feet of ground floor commercial space on the south parcel.

I imagine the retail space would be destined for a small, neighborhood serving mini-mart.  While there is a large residential population surrounding this intersection, I suspect that any kind of "destination," type store (i.e. the kind that people might consider driving to) would draw the ire of the neighbors.  While this proposal is technically at the corner of Fairfax and San Vicente, Olympic Blvd intersects both streets just a hundred or so feet away.  To put it mildly, traffic kind of gets backed up around here.

A bird's eye government satellite's view of the Fairfax/San Vicente/Olympic intersection(s).  The parcel destined for the school and next-door apartment building is outlined in red.

Anyway, time for the eye candy provided by the environmental report.  I'm withholding judgment on the architecture for a later date, but will say that I'm glad to see a 5-7 story building in LA that isn't designed by Thomas Cox Architects.

Western Elevation

Southern Elevation

Partial Eastern Elevation

Another Partial Eastern Elevation.

Northern Elevation, much of which which will be hidden behind the school building.

And finally....

An artist's conceptualization of the eastern side of the building.  Lots of people hanging out on porches doing nothing and an elderly couple hanging out on a balcony, pointing at nothing.

Of course, this one is still a ways off (as in 3-4 years).  The environmental report indicates that this project will be carried out independently of the school's rebuild.  Estimated start-to-finish timeline is 14 months for the school, followed by 18 months for the mixed-user.  Hard to believe the sheer amount of time it takes to build a low rise apartment building.