Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw Plaza plans massive expansion

A promotional display has popped up in the middle of the Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw Plaza mall. On it are pretty renderings that depict what one developer hopes the downtrodden mall can transform into. The revitalization project, which is still in early planning stages, hopes to add 2.5m sf of retail, residential, office, and hotel to the existing 1m sf mall. The new mall would resemble more of an "urban village" with pedestrian pathways and access to the planned Crenshaw corridor lightrail.

In the CEQA "Notice of Preparation" document compiled by the CRA, the plan calls for 1.8m sf of retail/entertainment, 150k sf office, a 400 room hotel and about 1000 dwelling units. The majority of the newly constructed buildings would be built on what are now surface parking lots, and all parking would be concentrated in two large structures at the southwest corner of the site. From the looks of the proposed site plan, the developer is aiming for an LA Live South, complete with "public plazas," restaurants, and an "entertainment district." This will be an ambitious, even dubious, feat. Rios Clementi Hale Studios prepared the initial architectural designs. The developer is Capri Capital Partners of Chicago, who has owned the property since 2006.

The LA Sentinel reports that support for the mall addition is strong in the local area, likely because it will add investment and jobs to a part of the city that has long lacked both. But projects of this magnitude rarely get off the ground in the current economic climate, and unfortunately this project's location poses a huge hurdle to its financial feasibility. LA Live barely scraped through on its final phases, and that was with lots of public money and a pre-recession groundbreaking. The Grand Avenue project, one of the largest and most exclusive mixed-use proposals out there, is on the back burner and running out of steam. But perhaps Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw Plaza can take advantage of its under-market status. When Macy's moved out of the historic Broadway department store building in the late 1990s, Wal-Mart was quick to fill the void, and remain's the only Wal-Mart in Los Angeles and the only 3-story Wal-Mart. Developers must be careful to improve the center in a lucrative and prestigious way, while preserving the African-American identity and pride of place the mall has come to embrace.

LA Trade Tech unveils phase I of massive building spree

Los Angeles Trade Technical College, the career-based community college located on Grand Ave and Washington Bl downtown, completed the first round of an aggressive building campaign early last week. For a long time, the 21-acre campus hardly resembled a college campus at all, and bore more similarities to the gritty industrial tracts that surround it. But administrators are hoping to turn around that rough-hewn image with a sprinkling of new buildings that the architect calls "competitive" with other downtown buildings. This first $85m phase is a small slice of the $600m that voters approved for campus renovations and additions back in 2002.

The two five-story buildings are located on Grand Ave between Washington and 23rd St., and were designed by MDA Johnson Favarro. Both buildings are about 120,000 sf and are expected to receive LEED Silver certification. When the Spring semester begins in February, the buildings will be home to 2 lecture halls; the admissions, registration, and administration offices; and various other offices and classrooms. Plans also call for a rooftop photovoltaic system that will supply up to 20% of the school's electricity demands. Up next for the school are a new track and field, a sports and wellness center, and a construction technology building.

The architecture, which features a suggestive combination of brick and concrete curving in Gehry-esque waves, is meant to represent "trade as art." On the rear are huge letters near the top of the building that spell out LATTC and are visible from the 10 and 110 freeways. The striking contrast of red brick and sinuous white walls forms a pleasing respite from the low, bland architecture that has come to define this stretch of Grand. But the buildings don't feel out of place here, as they seem to pay homage to the area's--and the school's--industrial heritage. The construction is not without fault however. The buildings frame what is dubbed an entry plaza and is meant to establish a new gateway for the campus, but instead forms just a typical driveway complete with security arms, and is hardly welcoming to pedestrians.

Source: LA Downtown News

LA Times: Hollywood W Hotel "ungainly"

The 15-story, $600m W Hollywood Hotel and Residences opened this morning after 10 long years of planning and construction. The development, which sits atop the Hollywood/Vine Metro Red Line station, boasts 305 hotel rooms, 143 residences, and 375 rental units, 78 of which are designated low-income. The mess of buildings, billboards, and public space occupies an L-shaped site with the historic 1924 Taft Building at its corner. LA Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne calls it "equal parts Chateau Marmont, LA Live, and Pershing Square," going on to say that it aptly symbolizes an LA that is "groping toward a denser, more vertical and more public future while still reluctant to abandon its love affair with the car and the glossier, more exclusive corners of celebrity culture."

The W Hotel is the largest mixed-use development to open in Hollywood since the Hollywood/Highland TOD in 2001. But the W project is higher market, more aspirational, and further from Hollywood's epicenter. Because of this, the W project faces more challenges than its neighbor to the west. Back in April of last year, we reported that the new W hotel would attempt to steal back the traditional press junket from the Four Seasons Beverly Hills. It has made an admirable attempt at this lofty goal, with 20 large suites specially suited to accommodate hair and make-up crews and heavy-duty electrical demands. But the W must also cater to a high-end residential market that doesn't want that glitzy Hollywood exposure. Still more divergent are the needs of the low-income renters and Metro passengers - a group that seems likely to be ignored by an upscale hotel management.

The intractable scale and awkward amalgamation of uses and users is less the result of poor planning than it is of a pioneering compromise between a multitude of diverse stakeholders. Nothing like this has ever been seen before in Los Angeles. As Hawthorne suggests, it may be too much to ask that low-income subway commuters mingle with the glamorous Hollywood elite. The complex also suffers from chronic design schizophrenia; a whopping five architecture offices (HKS, Designstudio, Architropolis, Daly Genik, Rios Clementi Hale) produced designs for different aspects of the project, with almost no regard for the intentions of the others. The flashing hotel lobby poses as much of a contrast to the stark rooftop pool as the subway station does to the valet station. Whether the W Hotel and Residences proves to be that much-fantasized catalyst of urban activity and merger of LA's notoriously divergent classes will be its chief test over time.

Rooms sell for between $259 and $1000/night and residences are 30% sold.