New Look For Chinatown's Blossom Plaza as It Officially Begins

There was a ceremonial groundbreaking (shovels in dirt, forced smiles, cameras, a lion dancer routine, etc.) held yesterday for the big Blossom Plaza mixed-user in Chinatown and it's been a long time coming for this project, which suffered blows dealt by the recession and the death of the state's redevelopment agencies. But it's now a go and real construction begins in August. When finished in two years, Blossom Plaza will have "240 housing units -- 53 of them for low-income individuals -- along with 20,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, a 17,000-square-foot plaza and 392 parking spaces," the Downtown News reports. Developer Forest City Residential West and architect Johnson Fain displayed this new rendering at yesterday's event, depicting a more ... colorful project than previously rendered. On the plus side, Forest City will build a walkway/plaza over a parking garage that will connect the elevated Gold Line station, adjacent to the development, with Broadway.
· A Decade Later, Blossom Plaza Breaks Ground [DN]
· Blossom Plaza Archives [Curbed LA]