Financial District WELCOME HOME

Recently, the Urbanize LA team had the good fortune to receive a tour of one of Los Angeles’ highest profile projects: the 73-story Wilshire Grand. Today, we’re pleased to be able to share the photos from that tour with our readers. We hope you enjoy these photos as much as we enjoyed getting a close up view of the West Coast’s soon-to-be tallest tower. Special thanks to Dan Dorn of Turner Construction and Laura Walsh of Cerrell Associates for making this tour possible, and a big thank you to Hunter Kerhart for the excellent photos.

One of the most important projects currently underway in Downtown Los Angeles is the renovation of the erstwhile Macy’s Plaza fortress into an open-air mixed-use complex known as the Bloc. This process began when the Ratkovich Company submitted an unsolicited offer to purchase the shopping center from the previous owner, local office landlord Jamison Services. Within months, the transformation was already underway. One of the myriad benefits of adaptive reuse projects is that they can operate on much shorter timelines.

Earlier this year, many Downtown stakeholders were elated to discover that the Sydell Group, a New York-based developer of lifestyle hotels, had purchased the former Los Angeles headquarters of the Bank of Italy for $39 million. The vacant 12-story edifice - commonly known as Giannini Place - has remained in a state of disrepair for years, despite its location in the midst of the resurgent 7th Street corridor. Now, details have emerged about Sydell’s plan to convert the 1923 building into the second location of the NoMad Hotel chain.

Since we last dropped by, the Wilshire Grand has become a dominant presence in Los Angeles skyline, visible for miles around. Take in four months of progress via this photo tour, with a huge assist from architectural photographer Hunter Kerhart.

Today’s Throwback Thursday is a pair of nighttime shots of the Downtown LA skyline from photographer Hunter Kerhart. Taken only nine months apart, they illustrate how quickly and dramatically the Wilshire Grand has altered the skyline. The tower has not even topped out yet, with several more floors, a glass dome, and a mast still be constructed. We can’t wait to see the finished product, and take in the new multi-peak Los Angeles skyline.

Residents of Downtown Los Angeles woke to helicopter noise last Saturday morning, as a glass slide was airlifted to the 69th-floor observation deck at the U.S. Bank Tower known as Skyspace LA. The Skyslide will be suspended from the side of the 1,018-foot tall building, allowing individuals to slide from the 70th floor to the 69th floor, supported only by a layer of clear 1 ¼-inch thick glass. Visitors will disembark onto a open-air observation deck that is being billed as the tallest in the State of California.

The Sydell Group, a New York-based developer of lifestyle hotels, has begun converting the Financial District’s long vacant Giannini Place into the second location of the boutique NoMad chain. The 12-story building, located at the intersection of 7th and Olive Streets, first opened in 1923 as the Los Angeles headquarters of the Bank of Italy. Designed by the architecture firm of Morgan, Walls & Clements, Giannini Place is known for its lavish interior, which includes marble floors and gold ceilings.

After spending decades as a surface parking lot, one of the most desirable development sites in Downtown Los Angeles is finally slated to birth a high-rise complex. Last week, plans were filed with the City of Los Angeles to construct a 43-story residential tower at the northeast corner of 8th and Figueroa Streets. The proposed development, located directly across the street from the FIGat7th shopping mall, would feature 436 dwelling units and slightly over 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space.