Renderings: See how 56-story skyscraper fits into Downtown LA’s Historic Core

It’s a taller, less flashy version of what was previously proposed—and it now calls for 608 residential units

By Bianca Barragan Feb 7, 2020, 3:15pm PST

A rendering shows the tower as seen from Broadway near Grand Central Market.

New views of a skyscraper slated to rise over a station on Downtown’s future subway line show how it will add to the neighborhood’s growing skyline.

The latest renderings by Solomon Cordwell Buenz depict a 56-story high-rise that has been streamlined into a familiar-looking tower that could easily fit into South Park, the Financial District, or Hollywood. It’s planned for Second Street between Spring Street and Broadway.

The development was previously pitched as a 30-story tower with more than 500,000 square feet of office space, 107 condos, and an eye-catching design resembling a bunch of differently shaped Tetris blocks fitted together.

But in December, planning documents say, there was a shift, with officials and the developer moving ahead with a version of the project that would bring more housing—608 residential units, including 45 “workforce housing units”—and 10,000 square feet of commercial space along the street. (Workforce housing is often used to describe income-restricted housing available to tenants making between 80 and 120 percent of the area median income, or $56,760 and $85,140 for a single-person household.)

AHBE | MIG is handling landscape architecture for the project, which includes plazas and paseos linking up to the entrance to the forthcoming Historic Broadway Rail Station on the Regional Connector Line, which the building would rise above.

The tower is being developed by Tribune Real Estate Holdings, part of the Tribune Media Company, which used to own the Los Angeles Times and its headquarters across the street at Times Mirror Square. Tribune sold the Times site to Canada-based Onni Group in 2016. Onni wants to build two new towers on that block, razing a 1970s addition by midcentury architect William Pereira in the process, and rehabbing the older structures on the property for reuse.

The Times Mirror project and this one will also be joined by the Frank Gehry-designed The Grand, which is under construction now at Grand Avenue and Second Street, and will include 20- and 39-story buildings, apartments, hotel rooms, and retail. A couple of blocks away, on Fourth Street, the 35-story Perla condo tower is under construction now, with an estimated opening sometime this year.