Check out some grainy cell phone pictures from a rainy afternoon in Palms. The aptly named Motor Avenue Apartments, which broke ground just over one year ago, now rises five stories north of Palms Boulevard. The $30 million project from locally-based Frost/Chaddock Developers includes 115 apartment units above ground level retail space. The building’s street-facing urban window provides a glimpse into an internal courtyard, while a rooftop atrium offers residents sweeping views of the Los Angeles basin. Designed by Santa Monica’s Killefer Flammang Architects, 3425 Motor Avenue stands in stark contrast to Palms’ almost limitless stock of low-rise, stucco-clad residential buildings. One of those stucco-clad neighbors is Palms Point, the fascinatingly ugly mixed-use project which recently opened across the street. Taking the name “Motor Avenue,” to heart, almost half of the building appears to be devoted to automobile parking. We’ll have to take the good with the bad, as developers look to cash in on the coming Expo Line station located a quarter-mile northeast. When Palms Station opens in approximately two years, residents of the Westside’s most densely populated neighborhood will have destinations such as Santa Monica, USC and Downtown LA just a short train ride away.