We've all heard house hunting horror stories, but none have reminded us of Saw as much as this one, sent in by a reader:
I wandered in to the Buena Vista Lofts in Boyle Heights a few days ago and remembered from your posts that they were supposed to be on their way to livability. Well, I searched through pretty much the whole complex (including the terrifying boiler room), and about 99 percent of it looked like the picture I've attached. Still full of hospital equipment, files, and the remnants of sets from movies that were shot there. The place is scary as hell. The only loft unit I could see there was the top-floor one pictured on their website (btw, all of the room views shown are the same apartment), except all of the furniture is gone now too. The view from the roof is truly majestic, but after viewing the neighborhood from above, I saw that the new buildings proposed on http://www.thebuenavistalofts.com/ would be built (as far as I could tell) on top of two rows of beautiful old (and currently populated) craftsman homes. I have a bunch of other photos I'm going to post on my blog if you want to see just how undeveloped it is. But frankly, if this developers plan is to tear down old homes and displace their residents so that more wealthy individuals (with no connection to the community) can have a nice view, I hope it stays that way. Now we know why this is the first loft development in LA not to use the word "luxury."
·Buena Vista Lofts Redux [Previously on Curbed LA]