Steven Sharp WELCOME HOME

Fresh off a demoralizing round of layoffs in March, Sony Pictures Entertainment is roaring back with a vengeance. According to a notice recently distributed by Culver City’s Planning Commission, the film and entertainment giant is seeking approval for an expansion project that would add new office and production facilities to its historic Washington Boulevard studio complex. The first aspect of the project, a 218,000 square foot office and support building, would rise eight stories, replacing a current surface parking lot next to Sony Picture Studios’ Overland Avenue entrance.

Westfield Century City’s long delayed expansion plans are shrinking…again. Citing market conditions and an ongoing dialogue with the surrounding neighborhood, the Austalian mall developer has opted to downscale its proposed 39-story high-rise to a less imposing 15-story structure. Once planned to contain 262 condominiums, the revised tower proposal features just 20 “upscale residences.“ When approved in 2009, the project was slated to include approximately 100,000 square feet of office space, in which the Westfield Group had intended to house its US headquarters.

Palms’ Motor Avenue Apartments–a $30 million residential-retail complex from Frost/Chaddock Developers–is inching towards the finish line. When we last dropped by in March, construction crews were applying the five-story structure’s exterior finishes. Three months later, the project more closely resembles renderings drafted by Santa Monica-based Killefer Flammang Architects. The building’s design is highlighted by a street-facing urban window, offering a “framed glimpse,” into an internal courtyard. The structure greets Motor Avenue with a galvanized sheet metal facade, to be supplemented by brick veneer at ground level.

Silicon Beach’s creative office boom has officially hit Playa Del Rey. When we last checked in on the Strand Offices in September 2013, the low-rise development’s wood skeleton was still taking form. Ten months later, the twin three-story structures are clad in plaster and wood paneling, closely resembling architectural renderings from the MiKA Design Group. The $6 million development from Cove Spring Partners consists of 10,000 square feet of office space and parking accommodations for 32 vehicles.

Take a hard look down Millennium Drive into the heart of Playa Vista’s mixed-use construction binge. The above image–sent yesterday by an e-mail tipster–portrays several of the structures which will eventually define the planned community’s main commercial hub. Near the center of the photograph, we see a construction crane raised high above Lincoln Property Company’s Runway at Playa Vista. The $260 million development will stretch from McConnell Avenue to Village Drive, offering wide sidewalks flanked by more than 200,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.

Beverly Hills’ long-vacant Robinsons-May building is officially no more! The above image, captured from the 42nd floor of the Century Plaza Towers, shows demolition well underway on the mid-century department store at 9900 Wilshire Boulevard. The eight-acre property, located near the confluence of Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards, is the site of a long-standing proposal for a Richard Meier-designed luxury condo development. Consisting of two mid-rise towers, the $500 million project would create 235 residential units and 21,000 square feet of ground-level commercial space.

The park-poor Del Rey neighborhood is about to get a $3 million infusion of green space, courtesy of the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA). According to signs recently posted across the street from Marina Middle School, the long-delayed Milton Street Park is scheduled to break ground this summer. The linear, 1.2-acre green space would replace a currently vacant property along the banks of Ballona Creek, owned by the Baldwin Hills Regional Conservation Authority (BHRCA) According to designs from the Downtown-based SWA Group, Milton Street Park would offer bird watching platforms, outdoor seating, picnic areas, and enhancements to the popular Ballona Creek bike path.

Low-slung Westwood Boulevard is slowly but surely raising its height profile. According to new environmental documents from the Department of City Planning, locally-based Halco Management intends to replace a mid-century office building near Olympic Boulevard with a new residential-retail complex. Plans call for a low-rise structure at 2134 Westwood Boulevard, containing 64 studio and one bedroom apartments, 5,500 square feet of retail space, and a two-level subterranean parking garage. Based on information from the Albert Group Architects, Halco intends to market the project as housing for UCLA undergraduate and graduate students.

West Los Angeles’ Sawtelle Corridor has received a new lease on life in recent years, as trendy stores and restaurants have poured into the historic Japanese American enclave. Now, a new development could add extra pedestrian traffic to the busy commercial corridor. According to a recent LADCP case filing, a new mixed-use development is proposed at 1947 Sawtelle Boulevard, with plans calling for 73 apartment units and an unspecified amount of street-level commercial space.

With thousands of residential units flooding into the massive Playa Vista campus, it appears that the lucrative multi-family action has started flowing south towards LAX. Courtesy of TCA Architects, take a first look at Altitude, a low-rise residential development now under construction at Westchester’s Howard Hughes Center. Consisting of two six-story buildings at 5900 and 6040 Center Drive, the project from Equity Residential will offer a combined total of 545 studio, one and two-bedroom apartment units.