South Park's 22-Story iHope Tower Getting Much Better Name

South Park has been busy busy lately--besides hotel and apartment projects underway, work started at Eighth and Hope last month on the 22-story tower formerly known as iHope. The project will have 290 apartments, six levels of parking (two underground), and 5,000 square feet of retail. It's absolutely terrible old name was the fault of the previous developers; the project is now owned by Wood Partners, who are doing a little community engagement with a new blog and, huzzah, a poll for a better name. Brigham Yen is hosting the discussion: the options are Alta, Glass House Los Angeles (the developer has Glass Houses in Denver and Dallas), 8th & Hope, 801 Hope, and 801. As of this writing, Glass House Los Angeles has a very narrow lead over 801 Hope.

Meanwhile, the 8th & Hope blog shares some historical research on the site (a parking lot before it was a construction site): "the property was in development as early as 1896. The northeastern portion of the property was developed with a three-story building constructed in 1887 originally occupied by Los Angeles College (a boarding school for girls) and later occupied by the Abbotsford Inn (1894-1921) and a two story dwelling (1906 to 1920)." The First Methodist Church took it over from 1922 until 1983--Wood actually dug up some white pillars from the church during excavation.