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.

Second Mixed-User Headed to La Brea/Willoughby

Over the summer, many Los Angeles preservationists were outraged by the unannounced demolition of the Mole-Richardson Building, a one-story Art Deco structure built in 1930.  Now six months later, a case filing from the Department of City Planning has finally revealed why the 84-year-old building met with such an undignified ending.

According to plans submitted to the city last week, a new residential-retail development will be constructed on the now vacant lot at 900 North La Brea Avenue.  The seven-story complex would contain 169 apartments and slightly over 37,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space.  Fourteen of the building's residential units would be reserved for very-low-income households.

Although the project is still in the earliest stages of the city's approval process, the experiences of a similar development across the street hint at a difficult path ahead.  La Brea Gateway, currently under construction, fought against a zealous neighborhood coalition for close to ten years prior to breaking ground this past Spring.  During that process, the project was gradually whittled down from a seven-story, 219-unit development to a more modest five-story, 179-unit building.

Metro Planning New Developments in Boyle Heights

Mariachi Plaza, seen during a recent CicLAvia (Image: Shannon Ino)

Yesterday brought the pleasant surprise of a new mixed-use development catacorner to the Gold Line's Mariachi Plaza Station.  Looks like that was just the tip of an oncoming TOD iceberg.

According to the agenda of the November 5th meeting of Metro's Planning & Programming Committee, the agency is planning new mixed-use developments on four additional properties in Boyle Heights.  This decision follows an 11-month selection process, in which Metro staff evaluated multiple proposals for each site on the basis of 1) their overall development program, 2) project feasibility, 3) the experience and qualifications of the development team and 4) a financial proposal to the agency.

The resulting transit-oriented developments would feature mixtures of affordable housing, retail and office space.  All are located within walking distance of high-frequency bus and rail service, a core tenet of Metro's TOD plan.

Mariachi Plaza Getting an Affordable Mixed-User

Conceptual rendering (2012) from DE Architects via Metro

Five years after the Gold Line's Eastside branch opened, development is finally headed to one of the Metro-owned properties above Mariachi Plaza Station.  According to plans submitted to the city in late October, an mixed-use affordable housing project will be constructed on the vacant 1.5-acre lot at 1750 E. 1st Street.

The proposed residential complex, dubbed the Santa Cecilia Apartments, is being developed by a partnership between Metro and McCormack Baron Salazar.  According to a document from the State Treasurer's Office, plans call for 79 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, with rents ranging from approximately $450 to $1,200 per month.  Units would be reserved for families making 30-60% of the Los Angeles median household income.  The four-story development would also include approximately 4,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, situated at the southwest corner of 1st Street and Boyle Avenue.

Big Arts District Warehouse Becoming Office Space

The Arts District continues to shed its industrial past, as yet another adaptive reuse project joins an already considerable list of proposed developments.  According to an October case filing with the Department of City Planning, a 280,000-square-foot warehouse complex at 2060 E. 7th Street is slated for a mixed-use conversion.  Plans filed with the city call for 40,000 square feet of retail and 20,000 square feet of restaurant uses within the development.  Upper floors of four-story complex feature rectangular floor plates, each of which can be combined to offer 88,000 square feet of contiguous office space.

The project is being developed by the Shorenstein Company, a San Francisco-based real estate firm which recently purchased the towering Aon Center.  The above warehouse, dubbed Seventh & Santa Fe, originally opened in 1915 as the Ford Motor Company's Southern California base of operations (Thank you, John Crandell!).  Designed by famed Los Angeles architect John Parkinson, the facility was used primarily for the assembly of Model T's and Model A's.

Seventh & Santa Fe is located in the southernmost section of the Arts District, an area which has recently experienced a noticeable uptick in investment.  Two additional mixed-use developments are planned nearby along 7th Street, potentially creating over 400 new market rate housing units.  Retailers and eateries have also taken notice of the neighborhood, including Bestia and Stumptown Coffee Roasters, both of which are located across Santa Fe Avenue from the proposed office project.

Details Emerge for Hollywood's Academy Square Development

Image: Kilroy Realty via Curbed LA

Over the summer, developer Kilroy Realty unveiled renderings for Academy Square, a $300 million mixed-use development on Vine Street.  Now, a set of environmental documents released by LADCP has revealed additional details about the project, which would create apartments, ground-floor retail, office space, and possibly hotel rooms on a site once intended for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

Academy Square would rise on a full city block, bounded by Vine Street, DeLongpre, Ivar and Homewood Avenues.  Plans for the 3.55-acre site call for a combination of low-rise and high-rise structures, bisected by an landscaped paseo running east-to-west across the property.

A trio of four-story buildings would flank the northern and southern perimeters of the site, containing approximately 280,000 square feet of office, retail and restaurant space.  According to a conceptual ground-floor site plan from the Shimoda Design Group, a significant portion of the proposed commercial space would be devoted to a 40,000-square-foot market at Vine Street and Homewood Avenue.

Academy Square is highlighted by a 23-story apartment building, which would stand at the northwest corner of the property.  The proposed tower would move forward under one of two development programs currently being considered by Kilroy Realty.  Under the first alternative, the building would contain as many as 250 apartments.  Under the second alternative, the project would feature 100 hotel rooms, in lieu of up to 50 fewer residential units.  Both options would include a fitness center, swimming pool and other standard amenities.

Despite its location a few blocks south of Hollywood/Vine Station, Academy Square would feature approximately 1,349 parking spaces, divided accordingly between residential, office and retail tenants.  Vehicular access to an underground garage would be provided via DeLongpre, Ivar and Homewood Avenues.

According to environmental report, construction of the potentially LEED-certified development is expected to last 27 months, starting in late 2015 and ending in early 2018.

An Overhead Perspective on Playa Vista Phase Two

Only from above can one fully appreciate the massive amount of construction underway throughout the Playa Vista neighborhood.  The thousand-acre expanse, formerly a component of the Howard Hughes aerospace empire, is now giving birth to creative office space, pricey chain retailers, and thousands of luxury apartments, condominiums, and single-family homes.  Take a quick photo tour through phase two of the planned community, from a vantage point high up in the Westchester Bluffs.