New details emerge about 30-story tower planned behind the L.A. Times

Pedestrian-friendly landscaping is part of the street-level design of a 30-story mixed-use development proposed for a 2nd Street parking lot across the street from the Los Angeles Times, according to the project's application to the city planning department.

The so-called 222 West 2nd project on Tribune Real Estate Holdings property will also include street-level commercial/retail space fronted by broad glass windows, as well as "a garden-like passage [that] connects the plaza around the Metro station to Spring Street, flowing in around the ground floor of the tower, a space that is both a respite and an oasis," the application promises. The paseo, as it's called, will also run between the tower and an existing adjacent parking garage.

The project, which was designed by architecture firm Gensler, is before the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council's Planning and Land Use Committee, UrbanizeLA.com reported.

The 30-story-development will occupy the block south of 2nd Street between Spring Street and Broadway, just north of a parking structure used by employees of the Times, and it will sit atop the new Metro Rail Connector Station being constructed below 2nd Street.

It will include 107 condos, 534,044 square feet of offices, and 7,200 square feet of ground-floor commercial space along 2nd and Spring streets.

Here’s how the project is described:

The building is conceived as a set of stacked volumes of varying sizes, with alternating types of curtain walls, capped by a bronze crown. ... The base of the building is raised 30 feet above the Metro station at its highest point and gently slopes downwards along 2nd Street before sloping upwards again to 30 feet on the Spring Street side. Formally, the weight and height of the building shifts back toward Spring Street and away from Broadway.

The tops of the various cantilevered building volumes will be used for landscaped courtyards, pools and other outdoor space for residents and tenants:

The mixed-use residential building will include landscaped courtyards on the eighth, 15th, 19th and 27th levels to provide open space for office users and required common open space for residents and to take advantage of the Southern California climate.

These spaces will create a strong residential community by including areas for socializing and experiencing nature."

The outdoor spaces will include:

... gardens, group gatherings areas, outdoor viewing terraces, barbeque and outdoor dining areas, recreation places for fitness and yoga, as well as quiet and intimate spaces. The landscaping for the Site will include drought-tolerant plants using both native and adaptive native plant materials."

• First look at the tower set to rise above Second/Broadway Regional Connector station [Curbed LA]
• 30-story condo tower headed for an LA Times lot [Curbed LA]