LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 6.0

[homebucket]

Does anyone know what's being planned for this parking lot here? Seems like it'd be the perfect location for a new supertall.

https://goo.gl/maps/bL21gJm1eHQJkZrV8

[homebucket]

I think once they get rid of all those walls and close the Hill Street side garage entrance and exit that should help a lot. Ideally, they should do the same for the Olive Street side too.







https://la.urbanize.city/post/first-...w-permit-ready

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by BrandonJXN

Which has absolutely nothing to do with what is going on in downtown Los Angeles. No one in DTLA is thinking about landscaping in Chicago. No one.

But all places play the game of keeping up with the joneses....some more than others. Cities within the LA basin do a bit of keeping up with each other, cities throughout the US & world do the same thing. It's funny how many new projs in dtla often cause various ppl to ask, why can't LA do things like other places do?

But details like the fact the dwp moat & other fountains in dtla are dry admittedly take a back seat to news that just came out today: A young guy riding a bicycle next to the Bloc...on flower or hope st...has been killed by a group that confronted him. The news over the weekend of another person being killed in front of grand central mkt....& the sight of hundreds of ppl running out of it....are unsettling.

The posts a few days ago about ppl not using transit in LA....such as the Expo or redline to dtla....because of fear of being harassed or victimized is not a subj that devlprs of new projs in dt....or their tenants, clients or customers....are going to take lightly.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by homebucket

Does anyone know what's being planned for this parking lot here? Seems like it'd be the perfect location for a new supertall.

I believe most, if not all of that land is owned by the MTA. The parking lot that was formerly north of there, where the park fifth apt tower has been built, was what I most wanted to see go adios. The back wall of the bldg facing broadway has a large mural on it. So the parking lot...or gap....next to it along Hill St....doesn't bother me as much.

[scania]

You find something to focus on that is negative all the time. This Pershing Square is something very positive for DTLA, but you don’t want to talk about that development.

[citywatch]

there was a question asked about the parking lot to the east of Pershing sq....my stating that it's in front of a large mural, & the need for a so called super tall to the west of it isn't all that necessary to me, isn't my idea of a negative. As for the park fifth tower, that's a positive thing to me...it fills in a part of the block around pershing sq. What is a negative were the various ppl complaining that the new bldg wasn't taller.

[Illithid Dude]

What was the point of the city hosting an elaborate design competition, culminating in the choosing of a high quality design, if this is what they are going to end up doing instead? Makes no sense.

[dax_gray]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

What was the point of the city hosting an elaborate design competition, culminating in the choosing of a high quality design, if this is what they are going to end up doing instead? Makes no sense.

I wrote in to the Board of Parks and Recs. I just couldn't. Building this Phase 1 nonsense is a colossal mistake and a waste of taxpayers money with the glass elevators and all. Even if they ignore my email at least I tried.

I'm sure a lot of you are unhappy with this so please have a shot - RAP.COMMISSIONERS@LACITY.ORG

Maybe enough emails will make them reconsider removing the garage to build Agence Ter in full.

[LAisthePlace]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

What was the point of the city hosting an elaborate design competition, culminating in the choosing of a high quality design, if this is what they are going to end up doing instead? Makes no sense.

If I had to guess it'd be to try to get a groundswell of support from civic and business leaders, philanthropists, etc to rally around the design and get funding.

Without that they probably felt they couldn't only do this which I think is incredibly short sighted.

[edale]

I understand closing the garage isn't practical, but if they could even just eliminate one of the ramps, that would be hugely helpful. Having the square cut off from the street on 3 sides just totally ruins the pedestrian access to it, and helps to make the interior of PS feel isolated and disconnected from the surrounding city. Even just removing one of these ramps and reconnecting the square to either 5th, 6th, or Olive would be great. Also, the Hill St side should be 'flattened' out as much as possible, with walls and other visual impediments to the center of the square removed.

There are plenty of excellent examples of urban squares we could look at for inspiration. Further, there are plenty of excellent urban squares atop underground garages we could look at! Two that come to mind are San Francisco's Union Square, and Cincinnati's Fountain Square.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by edale

I understand closing the garage isn't practical, but if they could even just eliminate one of the ramps, that would be hugely helpful. Having the square cut off from the street on 3 sides just totally ruins the pedestrian access to it, and helps to make the interior of PS feel isolated and disconnected from the surrounding city. Even just removing one of these ramps and reconnecting the square to either 5th, 6th, or Olive would be great. Also, the Hill St side should be 'flattened' out as much as possible, with walls and other visual impediments to the center of the square removed.

There are plenty of excellent examples of urban squares we could look at for inspiration. Further, there are plenty of excellent urban squares atop underground garages we could look at! Two that come to mind are San Francisco's Union Square, and Cincinnati's Fountain Square.

Agreed, I think if they could eliminate 2 or 3 of those ramps that would make the square a lot more pedestrian friendly. Or make the entrance/exit perpendicular to the street, rather than parallel, which elongates the wall/barrier and hurts access.

There are plenty of good examples of urban parks. Bryant Park in NYC also comes to mind, although I don't think that has an underground garage. Regardless, it should not be that difficult to redesign Pershing Square into a more pedestrian friendly square with some basic changes.

[citywatch]

Comments here & in other forums...about a PS or other projs...now make it very clear to me why getting consensus on anything can be both difficult or will never occur.

Ppl therefore had better be prepared to disagree or become unhappy with issue a, issue b, person a or person b, proj a or proj b.

Someone claimed this forum about dtla is less visited today by long time users because of comments or arguments posted here....but I've seen this forum go through up & down cycles for yrs. When I mainly lurk, I notice it often goes into regular lulls...or sort of dies off. Ppl naturally either lose or gain interest in the subj of a city...whether a dtla or other hoods.

I've been more active recently because of things like the colburn proj & the apt tower at Olympic & Hill....something about those projs have made me more confident in & hopeful about dt than in the past.

Although the two apt towers near 8th & Fig are important too, it's the more recent layer of an onni tower or upcoming devlpt like filling in the parking lot at Hill & 2nd St that to me helps flesh out things in a better way. I'm also assuming a proj like the Oceanwide bldgs on Fig....or the new hotel south of it....will be soon added to the mix.

[citywatch]

^ I suddenly realize I also forgot to mention the soon to be completed Grand Ave proj across from disney hall....which has affected my awareness of the nearby dwp bldg....and the soon to be completed regional connector line too.

If I'm posting here more frequently right now it's because I like reading things similar to this....

A few decades ago, DTLA never would’ve landed on any out-of-towner itineraries: There simply were’t enough things to do in Downtown Los Angeles, aside from witnessing a once-buzzing city center slump into a mix of stoic postmodern high-rises and vacant storefronts. These days, it’s a mostly different story....

[craigs]

I've said it before and I'll say it again--after living elsewhere for 20 years and returning to LA almost a year ago, downtown has changed more than any other part of the city. It's truly heartening to see how much it has improved in those years.

Most of this is new to me:

source

And look how far south the skyscrapers have spread:


source

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by craigs

I've said it before and I'll say it again--after living elsewhere for 20 years and returning to LA almost a year ago, downtown has changed more than any other part of the city. It's truly heartening to see how much it has improved in those years.

Correct. Why some ppl here in this forum or elsewhere resent that being cited or celebrated is beyond me. My posts & vids have just about always been because I like focusing on examples of dtla being much better now than it was over 10, 20, 30, 60, 70 yrs ago.

I've occasionally pointed out that I think dt in 2022 is better in various ways for the first....first....time in LA's history. Even when streets like broadway or 7th St attracted large crowds of shoppers back in the 1940s or 30s, ppl in general didn't want to live around there or spend 24-7-365 of their time in it. I think that's a major reason why dt went downhill so fast, so far & for so many decades. I bet if it had reached the level is at right now over 70 yrs ago, it would have held on better. That's the key to hoods like pasadena, sections of samo, west LA never falling apart as bad as dtla did.

Better income ppl started leaving bunker hill over 80 yrs ago,,,back in the 1920s. I've seen pics of dtla from over 70 yrs ago & it looked largely gritty in an industrial way even then. I know it wasn't a great looking place to be back when I worked around what's now South pk.

In my list of things that make me more positive about the hood today than I've ever been before, I forgot to include this....


https://twitter.com/SoCal360/status/1514750715826122757


• Video Link


btw, I had a post which went to a link of a vid showing a 100,000 sf mansion on a mountaintop in bel air...17 miles from dtla. That property has views of dt on one side, century city in the middle, the pacific on the other.

I notice a lot of sspers place the height & number of skyscrapers in dt on the top of their list of what they think is most important. To me, that's the least crucial or interesting aspect of it. But ppl in places like that mountaintop in bel air, who possibly never go to dtla, may be more aware of it due to its taller bldgs. lol. In a way, ppl who don't spend much or any time in dt itself will find the main reason to care about it being based on the visibility of its bldgs as seen from 17...or 5, 10, 20 miles away.

[ChelseaFC]

https://twitter.com/6thStViaduct

[colemonkee]

Oh man, this is going to be in soooo many car commercials when it opens. Did I read somewhere that the park underneath it had it's funding approved recently?

[craigs]

Originally Posted by colemonkee

Oh man, this is going to be in soooo many car commercials when it opens. Did I read somewhere that the park underneath it had it's funding approved recently?

Yeah, this viaduct--plus the park underneath--will be a hot filming location for movies, tv shows, and commercials for the foreseeable future.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by colemonkee

Oh man, this is going to be in soooo many car commercials when it opens. Did I read somewhere that the park underneath it had it's funding approved recently?

Yep, the City Council members voted unanimously to approve the park a few weeks ago.

[sopas ej]

I wonder if they'll ever do a "6th Street Viaduct" festival where they shut down the bridge to car traffic for a day and basically turn the bridge into a street party/festival, similar to the "Colorado Street Bridge Party" in Pasadena... although that bridge is much shorter than this one.