November 2012 Archives
DOWNTOWN: Metro has big plans for Union Station, which they recently bought and hope to bring oodles of new development and amenities to (with the help of architecture team Gruen and Grimshaw). As part of their Union Station Master Plan, the transit agency is holding a community meeting on Tuesday night from 6:30 - 8 p.m. in their HQ--across from Union Station--to garner input on the massive undertaking. [Curbed Inbox]
LOS ANGELES: Thanks to a grant from the Jesse Ball duPont fund, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Urban Land Institute today launched a new partnership to advance preservation of older/historic buildings, with an initial emphasis on LA. "The city of Los Angeles was selected for the pilot on the basis of its rich stock of historic resources and its Adaptive Reuse Ordinance, which, since 1999, has helped facilitate the conversion of dozens of historic and underutilized structures," according to a statement. [Curbed Inbox]
Union Station
800 N. Alameda Ave., Los Angeles, CA
USA
34.056
-118.237
CITYWIDE: Los Angeles is packed with great places to buy vintage. Racked rounds up 38 of the absolute best, from the Rose Bowl Flea to The Way We Wore.
HOLLYWOOD: Designer Jeremy Scott debuted his Smart showcar this week at the Jim Henson Studios. All the cool kids showed up (including MIA and hey! Leigh Lezark!) and Racked has the party snaps.
ATWATER VILLAGE: A French-inspired boutique called The Left Bank has opened left of the Los Angeles River. They'll have modern art, handmade jewelry, and designer and vintage clothing.
· Racked LA [Official Site]
USC's University Club (only faculty and staff can become members) has gotten a new home at King Stoops Hall, which started life in 1923 as a Los Angeles public library (and was a USC library for decades too). Perkins+Will designed the adaptive reuse project, adding an addition and creating "a main dining room that serves as the building's showpiece, modern kitchen, private rooms, a lounge, bar, and second floor banquet area," as well as a patio, according to a press release. Meanwhile, the old central library area has been opened up to focus on the cathedral ceiling and windows. The University Club used to be located in an old mid-century modern building at the south end of campus, but the press release notes that the new building is "at the heart of a campus that is expanding northward."
· University Club [Official Site]
This new listing in Altadena has got a little something for everyone. For starters, the two-acre property contains a stately 1933 Mediterranean designed by architect Weldow F. Hearld. Along with that five bedroom, four and one-quarter bath residence, you've got a log cabin that was built in 1936 "amidst a stand of California Redwoods." Then, there's a post and beam pool house with fireplace, kitchenette and two baths designed by Boyd Georgi in 1956. Covering a couple more bases, the estate also boasts a swimming pool and tennis court. Last sold for $1.5 million in 2002, it's now asking $2.75 million.
· 3034 VIA MADERAS St [Redfin]
3034 Via Maderas St., Altadena, CA 91001
USA
34.1959
-118.123
The German architect who did a terrible, terrible job building a house in the Hills for Germany's Next Top Model will go to trial for involuntary manslaughter of an LAFD firefighter. Gerhard Becker installed outdoor fireplaces indoors, didn't put in firebreaks to keep flames from spreading, and made fireplaces out of wood framing lined with combustible drywall. The house burst into flames last year and a firefighter was killed when the ceiling collapsed. Meanwhile, the rebuilt house is still for sale, asking $9.95 million. [LAT]
The Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton stores at the bottom of Carmel Partners's rendering for the Eighth & Grand project (via the SkyScraper Page) should be taken with a salt lick. Nevertheless, here is our first look at the proposed mixed-user from San Francisco-based Carmel--who took over the already-entitled project from local developer Sonny Astani (they paid $63 million). We're counting seven floors, which we know will contain 700 residential units, a 40 foot rooftop pool, (with lounge and cabanas), approximately 36,000 square feet of retail space, nearly an acre of open space, and 737 parking spaces. Carol Schatz, the CEO of the Downtown Center Business Improvement District, indicated in early October that a groundbreaking was coming soon, while Carmel's website says the project is now in pre-construction.
· Huge Eighth & Grand Mixed-Use Site Sells, Work to Start By Fall [Curbed LA]
Grand & 8th
Eighth St. & Grand Ave., Los Angeles, CA
USA
34.0458
-118.258
Oh good, yet more confirmation that it's practically impossible to actually afford a house in Los Angeles. CNNMoney has ranked the 10 least affordable cities for homebuying, comparing median home price with median income to find the percentage of houses that average workers can afford. Los Angeles comes in in *fourth (not seventh, as previously written) place--not terrible, but still: oof. Median home price right now is $335,000; median income is $64,800. That makes for 44.1 percent affordability. But at least that's better than it used to be? During the boom, "the median price was $530,000 and only 3% of the homes sold were considered affordable to median income families." Post-bust, prices have started to creep up again in some neighborhoods, but unemployment has also fallen over the past year. The LA Business Council and UCLA recently released a report with similar findings, although they included rentals and found that LA was the third least affordable city (after New York and San Francisco). They also made some suggestions, like building more units and making it easier for workers to commute to jobs via transit. [Pictured: what $335,000 will get you in Long Beach]
· 10 least affordable cities to buy a home [CNNMoney]
· The Average LA Worker Still Can't Actually Afford to Live in LA [Curbed LA]
Oh, it is on in Koreatown, where the Sydell Group (of Palm Springs's Saguaro) has been working on a boutique overhaul of the Wilshire Hotel (formerly the Wilshire Plaza) called The Line. Our pals at Eater LA revealed today that Sydell has brought in chef Roy Choi (of Kogi and A-Frame), nightlife dudes Mark and Johnny Houston (of La Descarga and Harvard & Stone), and designer Sean Knibb (A-Frame) to handle the various food, entertainment, and design responsibilities (there will be multiple offerings). The Houstons and Choi are all from K-Town originally, and Sydell says that it plans to make this "the first lifestyle hotel of its kind in the United States to draw upon Korean and Korean-American culture, food and design." The hotel has 388 rooms (all getting gut renos) and is set to open next summer.
· The NoMad Hotel Group + Roy Choi + The Houston Brothers + Sean Knibb at The Line Hotel Next Summer [Eater LA]
The Line
3515 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA
USA
34.0621
-118.301
Venice locally-famous Lantern House has hit the market--the property is a legal triplex in "nearly century-old, classic beach cottages" (built in the early twenties) but is currently used as a single-family compound. That single family is obviously a little kooky, or as the listing puts it, "Find here an incomparable private oasis where fountains, art and riotous landscaping meld the indoors and outdoors into everything iconoclastic, delightful and exotic." And it all comes with the house, which is "offered fully-furnished with the owner's lifetime assemblage of fine art, furniture, furnishings, collectibles and curios." Keeping a uniquely Venice institution intact--sounds great! But then there's this snuck in at the end of the listing: "A rare opportunity for developers." Well. Anyway, they're only accepting cash offers and asking price is $5.4 million.
· 745 Milwood Avenue Venice, CA [Estately]
Lantern House
745 Milwood Ave., Los Angeles, CA
USA
33.9938
-118.463
Former Laker (now 76er) Andrew Bynum is in a legal war with some of his former neighbors in Westchester--he claims "he was 'harassed' by Ramond and Cindy Beckett, 'who object' to his 'profession, his race, his friends, his cars, and his taste in music'," reports USA Today. He claims the Becketts are huuuuuuge dicks: "throwing coins at his Ferrari (which chipped the paint), screaming at him about his music, and even banging the side of his house with 'a long stick'," according to TMZ. The Becketts are in turn countersuing, saying "Andrew Bynum is a great basketball player and a terrible neighbor who presumes that being an NBA All Star entitles him to party like a rock star in the otherwise quiet Westchester neighborhood where he lives."
Just in the last half-year, Los Angeles has banned pot shops, unbanned pot shops, relied on the federal government to crack down on pot shops, and now they're working on a sort of backdoor revival of their 2010 ordinance regulating the shops: yesterday the City Planning Commission voted to give "limited immunity from enforcement" to medical marijuana clinics that "have been in operation since September 2007, have registered with the city, pay taxes and agree to limits on hours of operation and location," according to the Daily News (they also must be more than 1,000 feet from things like schools and churches). That'll cover something fewer than 182 shops--the same number that would've been grandfathered in under the 2010 ordinance. However, these shops are only protected from local crackdowns--the state and the feds can still bust in whenever they please. The measure now goes to the City Attorney for some tweaks and the City Council for approval.
SKID ROW: Today, LA County officially unveiled the rehab of the Downtown Women's Center's Jill's Place, "the first project to be completed under the Community Development Commission's (CDC) Sustainable Rehabilitation Program"--it provides 48 permanent supportive housing units for formerly homeless women. That "sustainable" part means that the CDC put a lot of money into reducing the building's energy usage (they brought it down by about 30 percent). Architect Maureen Sullivan of Pica+Sullivan designed this rehab; she worked on the building back in the early '80s too, when she was in Brenda Levin's office. Twenty residents moved into the new Jill's Place on November 1; the building should be completely leased in February 2013. The DWC has also opened a store in the building called Made by DWC Resale Boutique. In 2010, the DWC opened up a new home in an old shoe factory on San Pedro Street. [Curbed Inbox]
DOWNTOWN: Loving all this supportive housing for the homeless? The design boosters at Design East of La Brea are hosting a tour of the Skid Row Housing Trust's Carver Apartments, that crazy sawblade-looking building by the 10. Carver was designed by Michael Maltzan and opened in 2010, providing 97 supportive housing units. Info on the tour here. [Curbed Inbox]
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