New Developments Reshaping Koreatown

The Vermont Apartments

Soaring high above Wilshire Bouelvard, the $200 million Vermont Apartments serve as ostentatious symbols of the recent influx of upscale housing into previously downmarket Koreatown.  The densely populated community, long overlooked due to its isolation from the Southern California freeway network, has recently become a residential hotspot due in part to its relative affordability and thriving night life.  Consequently, the market has responded with dozens of new and revived residential developments in all reaches of the neighborhood, including adaptive reuse projects and ground-up construction.

Now, this ongoing wave of multi-family development is pushing east towards MacArthur Park.  Take a quarter-mile trip down Virgil Avenue, where a series of new mixed-use developments are replacing blighted properties on Koreatown's eastern fringe.

Shiny New Renderings for 3033 Wilshire Boulevard (UPDATED)

3033 Wilshire Boulevard (All images: Steinberg Architects)

New information has emerged regarding 3033 Wilshire Boulevard, a proposed high-rise apartment complex which would straddle the border between Westlake and Koreatown.

Los Angeles-based Steinberg Architects, design architect for the project, recently updated its website with a new a page for the proposed 18-story building.  The tower, as envisioned by developer UDR Incorporated, would consist of 190 apartments, 5,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space, and four levels of below-grade parking.  Residential units would range in size from studios to luxury penthouse spaces, each of which would contain two bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Steinberg's design for the building would feature an exterior consisting primarily of glass.  A series of protruding decks would gradually change in shape and size while moving up the tower's mass, giving the facade a fluid texture.  The building would be capped by a rooftop pool and amenity deck, offering panoramic views of Downtown Los Angeles, the Hollywood Hills and the Pacific Ocean.

The project site - located at the northwest corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Virgil Avenue - was first slated for high-rise development nearly one decade ago.  According to the website of consulting firm PMA, the new apartment tower is scheduled for completion in February 2016.

UPDATE 11/22/14: Heavy equipment and construction materials are present at the development site.

Whoa: Koreatown High-Rise Project Revived

3033 Wilshire Boulevard, by Steinberg Architects (Image: PMA, Inc.)

Longstanding plans to build a high-rise apartment building in eastern Koreatown have suddenly kicked back into gear.

According to a series of permit applications with the Department of Building and Safety, Colorado-based developer UDR, Inc. is moving forward with an 18-story residential tower at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Virgil Avenue.  The 201-foot building, designed by Steinberg Architects, would feature 190 residential units and slightly over 5,500 square feet of ground-level retail space.

Plans call for a wide variety of indoor and outdoor amenities, including a rooftop pool, a fitness center, and bike-storage racks.  The mixed-use development would also offer parking accommodations for as many as 302 vehicles, situated within four podium levels.