Golang WELCOME HOME

A pair of cameras perched atop’s high above Ocean Boulevard offer a bird’s eye perspective on the $520-million rebuild of the Long Beach Civic Center. Work kicked off earlier this year at the southwest corner of the 16-acre project site, which will become home to dual 11-story buildings that will become the new Long Beach City Hall and headquarters for the Port of Long Beach. Both of the mid-rise structures were designed by global architecture firm SOM.

Local real estate firm ETCO Homes is planning a pair of multifamily residential buildings just north of Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. The first of the two projects, located at 714-718 N. Sweetzer Avenue, would consist of a five-story building would consist of a five-story building feature 26 residential units, two of which would be set aside for very low-income households. In exchange for providing affordable units, ETCO has requested density bonus incentives allowing for increased floor area ratio and height.

After signing seven new tenants, the Ratkovich Company has announced that more than 300,000 square feet of office space has been leased at the Bloc in Downtown Los Angeles. The 33-story building at 700 S. Flower Street is already host to a variety of technology and design firms, such as DLR Group, HauteLook, Studio One Eleven and Golin. The latest additions to its roster include KPFF, Placeworks, Krug Furnite, One Medical, MediaAlpha, Arc Capital Partners and Mance Media.

Take a photo tour of the Merritt Building in Downtown Los Angeles, courtesy of architectural photographer Hunter Kerhart. The nine-story building, located at 8th Street and Broadway, was originally developed as commercial offices by real estate and railroad magnate Hulett C. Merritt. Designed in the Beaux Arts style by the Reid Brothers, a San Francisco-based architecture firm, the Merritt Building is highlighted by the collection of four-story columns which wrap the building’s upper levels.

New renderings have emerged for the Sunset Time, a proposed hotel and residential complex which would replace the former House of Blues on West Hollywood’s famed Sunset Strip. Combined Properties, a Washington, D.C.-based real estate firm, intends to raze the vacant nightclub at Sunset Boulevard and Olive Drive to replace it with a pair of mid-rise buildings featuring 149 hotel rooms, 40 condominiums and 25,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space.

The decade-long saga is finally coming to a close: Hollywood’s Dream Hotel is nearly complete. The $50-million development, located at 6417 W. Selma Avenue, will consist of 182 guest rooms in addition to a banquet room, a roof deck and restaurant space. Developer Hollywood International Regional Center (HIRC) is also repurposing an adjacent alley way into patio dining space. Killefer Flammang Architects, based out of Santa Monica, is is responsible for the design of the 10-story building, which features a modern building protruding over a base clad in brick veneer.

Los Angeles-based developer Jamison Services, Inc. has completed construction for the Abbey, a 110-unit apartment building at 3550 W. 6th Street in Koreatown. The project consisted of the adaptive reuse of a six-story, 1927 office building into a mixture of studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments ranging from 550 square feet to 1,069 square feet in size. Individual units come with open floor plans, balconies, stainless steel appliances and in-unit washer-dryer sets.

This week, the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council’s Planning and Land Use Committee will review a proposed mixed-use development flanking the Expo and Blue Line tracks in South Park. A trio of property owners, lead by Leon Adhoot, filed plans with the City of Los Angeles earlier this year to redevelop a 30,000-square-foot property at 1400 S. Flower Street into a seven-story edifice featuring residential units above pedestrian-oriented commercial space. The upper levels of the building would offer a collection of 147 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments.

The blighted industrial stretch of Jefferson Boulevard that cuts through Mid City Los Angeles could be livened up with a mixed-use development. According to an agenda item from last month’s meeting of CRA/LA, West Hollywood-based Charles Company could take control of a former CRA asset at 3900-3914 W. Jefferson Boulevard to build an office building with ground-floor retail space. However, the height and square footage of the building has not been determined.

After what has seemed like a weekly parade of controversial developments making their way through City Hall, developer Rick Caruso’s proposed 19-story tower in Beverly Grove has almost quietly received the unanimous approval of the Los Angeles City Planning Commission. The $155-million project, slated for a property at 333 S. La Cienega Boulevard, would consist of feature 154 residential units and nearly 30,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. In receiving the approval of the PLUM Committee, Caruso has agreed to provide 14 units of affordable housing within the building - a slight increase from when the project was endorsed by the Mid City West Community Council last month.