Sam Hall Kaplan reminds us of plans from the not-so-distant past, in his scathing critique of the new Parker Center at the corner of First and Spring (site of the old CalTrans HQ).
Envision a ballerina's tutu wrapped around the hips of a hippo. That is how it appears the Los Angeles Police Department has dressed up its proposed new headquarters on a block Downtown that had been previously and enthusiastically approved as a public park. As mentioned previously, the new Parker Center isn't the most pedestrian friendly building and generally pales in comparison to the original design. But Kaplan points out that the site had previously been designated as a civic park, and the placemnt of LAPD headquarters on the site destroys years of planning and creates a bottleneck of bulky buildings that do nothing for street character or downtown.
· The Hippo Needs More than a Tutu [LA Downtown News]