DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES: News and Updates - Page 25

dragonsky · #**481** Posted **May 3, 2015, 10:00 PM**

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Chinese developer leads transformation of L.A.'s skyline

Chang's team started excavating the site last July and has kept on schedule since, she said. The three cranes working on the hotel and condo tower are an unusual sight in Los Angeles, where one crane per building is typical.

"We added a second crane to the residential tower to ensure timely progress," Chang said.

Developers usually wait for condos to be sold before erecting more, but Chang is already at work on the second phase of Metropolis — two more high-rise condo towers with about 1,500 units.

The first phase will include an 18-story, 350-room hotel and a 38-story condo tower with 308 units. More than half of the condos have committed buyers, Chang said.

Chinese development appears to differ from the heavy Japanese investment in U.S. real estate in the late 1980s, which unnerved many Americans. Japanese investors acquired prominent properties at record prices before both countries experienced an economic downturn in the early 1990s and their real estate markets crashed.

Greenland and other Chinese developers in Los Angeles are building new projects from the ground up, assuming substantial financial risk. If they fail to turn a profit, developments such as Metropolis could be sold for less than it cost to build them.

Greenland is also working with city officials and business leaders to create Avenue of the Angels, a proposed pedestrian thoroughfare with shops, restaurants and bars intended to link downtown's South Park neighborhood with the financial district. It would pass by Metropolis.

"Chinese investors will become even more active and influential over the next 10 years," he said, "and will continue adapting to Western business practices while retaining a critical sensitivity to their Chinese roots and the demographics of the Chinese population in the United States."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...503-story.html

dragonsky · #**482** Posted **May 18, 2015, 1:50 AM**

http://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer...518-story.html

dragonsky · #**483** Posted **May 18, 2015, 1:51 AM**

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Expansion L.A. soccer team plans new stadium on Sports Arena site

The expansion Los Angeles Football Club plans to construct the country's most expensive privately financed soccer stadium on the site of the Sports Arena in Exposition Park, making it the first open-air professional sports venue to be built in Los Angeles since Dodger Stadium in 1962.

The $250-million complex, covering 15 acres in the shadow of the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, would include a conference center, restaurants and a soccer museum. At its center would be a 22,000-seat stadium, home to the new Major League Soccer franchise when it makes its debut in 2018.

The project, costing $100 million more than the team's projections seven months ago, still needs approval from the Coliseum Commission and the L.A. City Council. But both groups, along with L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, have already expressed support for the project and approval is expected by July.

The decision to go forward with the project was made last week, and the club will formally announce its plans at a news conference Monday.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer...518-story.html

dragonsky · #**484** Posted **May 27, 2015, 4:34 AM**

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Former Macy's Plaza in DTLA getting makeover from roof down

Workmen torched a hole in the roof of the former Macy's Plaza in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday as part of an ambitious $180-million makeover aiming to transform the fortress-like mall into an outdoor plaza.

http://www.latimes.com/business/real...527-story.html

dragonsky · #**485** Posted **Jun 18, 2015, 4:38 AM**

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City Picks Winner of Convention Center Redesign Competition

The colorful and airy design features a number of major additions to the aging Convention Center. The plan would connect the South Hall with the West Hall via a new structure over Pico Boulevard; multiple floors of meeting spaces would line an open-air “courtyard,” with pedestrians and cars visible below.

The renovation would tweak the West Hall to create a large “outdoor ballroom” space, with a grand staircase drawing people in from the existing Gilbert Lindsay Plaza (located just south of Staples Center).

The Populous/HMC design would also create a large ballroom on top of the West Hall with a ceiling of skylights and connected to large outdoor terraces that offer views of the Downtown skyline

http://www.ladowntownnews.com/news/c...cfd855db6.html

dragonsky · #**486** Posted **Jul 7, 2015, 2:41 AM**

Women's World Cup final sets TV record; U.S. team to attend rally Tuesday in L.A.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/sports...706-story.html

dragonsky · #**487** Posted **Aug 18, 2015, 4:20 AM**

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W Hotel Coming to South Park Mega-Project
30-Story Building Part of Luxe Hotel Replacement

Chinese developer Shenzhen Hazens is taking advantage of Downtown's growing demand for hotel rooms, with plans to build a 30-story hotel alongside two residential towers at its $700 million mega-project across the street from L.A. Live.

Executives with Shenzhen Hazens announced this morning that the 250-room, five-star hotel will be a W Hotel, which is part of the Starwood Hotel and Resort group.

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2015/0...egaproject.php

dragonsky · #**488** Posted **Aug 29, 2015, 1:47 PM**

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Frank Gehry faces monumental challenge in L.A. River project

Cutting through a region whose wildly different parts don't always seem to add up to a cohesive whole, the Los Angeles River reflects the neighborhoods through which it runs: Shaded and bucolic in the San Fernando Valley, a concrete gulch teeming with graffiti near the rail yards east of downtown.

Architect Frank Gehry says that he wants to remake this largely derelict waterway with a unifying vision.

But as the early contours of Gehry's plans for the river emerged Friday, so did the challenges that his team of architects and engineers will face in crafting what they say would be "a continuous experience" over 51 miles of a waterway that flows through 15 cities and a varied landscape of parks, residential neighborhoods, urban centers and bleak stretches of industrial land.

The first public unveiling of the plans by partners in Gehry's firm lacked detail but hinted at a public works project of historic ambition. Clusters along the river would be set aside for parkland and new real estate development, as well as bike and pedestrian paths under a unified (though still undefined) design theme. The river, along with some of its tributaries, would be re-engineered to improve the reclamation of runoff water.

http://www.latimes.com/local/cityhal...829-story.html

dragonsky · #**489** Posted **Sep 29, 2015, 4:06 AM**

• Video Link
USC Village Aerial September 2015

dragonsky · #**490** Posted **Sep 30, 2015, 3:19 AM**

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LAFC unveil latest Los Angeles stadium renderings ahead of supporters workshop on Saturday

LAFC might be more than two years from opening their first MLS season, but the franchise is wasting no time getting ready.

Saturday, the club hosts the first in a series of meetings with supporters and season-ticket (deposit) holders at the downtown Los Angeles offices of Gensler, their stadium architects. The lead topic? Stadium design, supplemented by a programming workshop in which the fans will get a chance to offer feedback on their proposed home.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/articl...kshop-saturday

dragonsky · #**491** Posted **Sep 30, 2015, 5:20 AM**

Dodgers clinch third consecutive National League West Division title

http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodger...929-story.html

dragonsky · #**492** Posted **Oct 30, 2015, 3:00 AM**

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USC proposes $270 million in Coliseum upgrades

The plans include replacing every seat in the stadium, installing handrails, increasing leg room in many sections, and building a structure on the south side that will include suites, loge boxes and a new media area. The improvements would reduce seating capacity from nearly 93,600 to about 77,500.

The project would begin after USC’s 2017 football season and be finished in time for the 2019 home opener. The football team would still be able to play in the stadium during the 2018 season, officials said.

USC officials said 3,000 people could be employed during the construction phase and that the upgraded Coliseum would need an additional 400 permanent workers.

The two Coliseum commissioners who attended Thursday’s meeting, City Councilman Curren Price and Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, expressed early support for the project. Ridley-Thomas said the added jobs and investment in the Coliseum would make the surrounding area more attractive for residents.

Casey Wasserman, chairman of the city’s 2024 Summer Olympics bid committee, also praised the plan. “We’re confident that the newly renovated Coliseum would be the ideal location for an innovative and sustainable Olympic and Paralympic Games,” he said in a statement.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/l...029-story.html

dragonsky · #**493** Posted **Dec 21, 2015, 3:48 AM**

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In at least one huge deal in L.A., Trump got schooled

On one side was the alpha male of New York developers who burst into town with pockets full of money, a legion of lobbyists and lawyers and an audacious plan to build the nation's tallest building.

Opposing was a tag team Donald Trump would have little reason to fear: Jackie Goldberg and Jeff Horton, two rumpled progressives on the Los Angeles Board of Education.

Long before his run for president and his reality TV career as the ruthless boss, Trump fought an ugly decade-long battle over a Los Angeles landmark.

It's not an exploit he's bragging about on the campaign trail.

The prize was the Ambassador Hotel. A legendary Hollywood celebrity hangout and the site of the 1968 assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, it had endured a long downward spiral before closing in 1989.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politi...220-story.html

dragonsky · #**494** Posted **Jan 12, 2016, 4:20 PM**

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LA Football Club Unveils New Team Colors, Logo, and Part-Owner Will Ferrell

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2016/0...ll_ferrell.php

• Video Link

dragonsky · #**495** Posted **Jan 31, 2016, 1:58 AM**

Kings to host 2017 NHL All-Star Game in L.A.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/kings/...30-column.html

dragonsky · #**496** Posted **Mar 3, 2016, 5:20 AM**

Tallest Tower in the West Will Have a Glass Slide Stuck to the Side of the 69th Floor
What's an observation deck without a "thrill factor"?
http://la.curbed.com/2016/3/1/111399...slide-skyslide

dragonsky · #**497** Posted **Apr 2, 2016, 2:40 PM**

Downtown LA's Grand Park to Be Shaded by Giant Paper Airplanes
The wait at lunchtime food trucks this summer will be a little cooler
http://la.curbed.com/2016/3/31/11339...and-park-shade

dragonsky · #**498** Posted **Apr 21, 2016, 3:05 AM**

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Smorgasburg's Massive Food Bonanza Comes to Downtown LA

Smorgasburg, the weekly Sunday specialty food and shopping festival in Brooklyn, is finding a new home in Downtown Los Angeles starting June 19, 2016. With over 100 vendor slots spread across five acres (they're taking applications now), the event boasts plenty of food (including the likes of Ramen Burger in Brooklyn), antiques, crafts, clothing, and children's activities.

http://la.eater.com/2016/1/12/107576...wn-los-angeles

dragonsky · #**499** Posted **Apr 23, 2016, 4:14 AM**

L.A. Receives Stunning Bronze Wings Sculpture From Mexico City
http://laist.com/2016/04/11/wings_of..._sculpture.php

dragonsky · #**500** Posted **May 7, 2016, 3:38 AM**

Here Are the Four Teams That Will Compete to Redesign Downtown LA's Hated Pershing Square
http://la.curbed.com/2015/12/21/1085...finalist-teams

Video Link