Chris Loos WELCOME HOME

Developer Trammell Crow Residential (TCR) and architecture firm CallisonRTKL have released a flyover video for the Alexan, a proposed high-rise development in Downtown Los Angeles. The mixed-use project, planned at the site of a parking lot at 9th and Hill Streets, would take the form of a 27-story featuring 305 apartments, 6,200 square feet of retail space, and amenities such as a bike kitchen, a swimming pool and a fitness center.

Ever since its completion in 2007, the Santee Court/Santee Village complex has felt a bit isolated. Sitting at the northern edge of the Fashion District, the 381-unit condo and apartment complex spans six former industrial buildings overlooking a central courtyard. The complex, along with the 64-unit Textile Building, are the only residential structures on the block defined by Seventh, Eighth, Los Angeles and Maple Streets. Too far east to feel like a contiguous part of the Historic Core, yet starkly different than the neighboring Flower District and Skid Row.

A new super-high resolution photo from architectural photographer Hunter Kerhart captures the current state of the ever-changing DTLA skyline in stunning detail. Use the controls below to pan and zoom the image. From left to right, visible projects include: For those so inclined, compare the image with the previous panorama we published last September. The most important change in the past five months? The snow-capped San Gabriel Mountains. Gives us everything you’ve got, El Nino!

This stunning 126-megapixel panoramic photo seen below comes to us from architectural photographer Hunter Kerhart. It features an unprecedented nineteen cranes visible in a single shot of the Downtown Los Angeles skyline, spread out over thirteen under-construction projects. The pace of construction activity in DTLA has truly become something to behold. From left to right, the projects with visible cranes are: Circa and Oceanwide Plaza, two mixed-use developments under construction near Staples Center, will create an additional five high-rise buildings towards the left side of the image in the near future.

Initial renderings of the $300 million Frank Gehry-designed mixed-user at 8150 Sunset were revealed this morning via Architectural Record. The 2.6 acre site developed by Townscape Partners is located at the intersection of Sunset and Crescent Heights Boulevards at the easternmost end of the Sunset Strip. The 333,600 square foot project will feature 249 residential units and 65,700 square feet of retail spread over five architecturally distinct buildings and organized around a central plaza.

Thanks to funds contributed by the developer of the Wilshire Grand Center, improvements are coming to a stretch of Seventh Street between Figueroa and Olive Streets, as well as to the bridges which carry Wilshire Boulevard and Seventh Street above the Harbor Freeway. You can view slides from the presentation here.

The proposed Downtown LA Streetcar officially moved to its next phase this morning, when the Los Angeles City Council’s Transportation Committee voted 5-0 to allow Los Angeles Streetcar, Inc. (LASI) to contract out the preliminary engineering work for the project. Meeting attendees expressed overwhelming support with the project, including several positive public comments. A recent estimate from planning and engineering firm AECOM raised eyebrows when it estimated the total cost of the proposed streetcar at $281.6 million - a far greater total than the $125 million figure presented to voters in 2012.

What a way to cap a big week of news for Downtown Los Angeles. On Tuesday, the City of Los Angeles announced that the team of Populous and HMC Architects had been selected to design the $350 million expansion of the Los Angeles Convention Center, beating out other proposals from teams lead by Gensler and AC Martin. Now, several new renderings have been released for the Populous-HMC proposal on Facebook and Twitter by Mayor Garceitti’s office.

Earlier this week, Urbanize LA got a sneak peak inside Garment Lofts- the first new market-rate rental residential project to hit in the Fashion District since way back in 2004. Located at 217 E. 8th Street in the Gothic Revival-style Garment Capitol Building, the project contains 77 residential units and 3,479 square feet of ground floor retail. Seven different floorplans are available, ranging in size from 663 SF to 1,617 SF.

A new fly-through video of the winning Populous/HMC design for the expanded Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC) has been posted on Vimeo, courtesy of Populous. Previously released stills of the design gave a decent overview of Populous and HMC’s plans for bringing our aging convention center up to date, but the newly released video fills in much of the gaps and answers some questions in regards to how all the elements fit together.