Golang WELCOME HOME

Prepare to bid farewell to one of the most conspicuous surface parking lots in Hollywood, as Camden Development’s mixed-use project at Selma and Vine is just about ready to get shovels in the ground. As of this morning, the Department of Building and Safety has issued permits to Camden for shoring and foundation work on their $240 million project. Plans call for a 7-story building consisting of 287 apartments, 39,000 square feet of street level retail, and a four-level underground parking garage.

Back in September, longtime County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky announced that the San Fernando Valley Family Support Center was breaking ground in Van Nuys. Located at the southwest corner of Van Nuys Boulevard and Saticoy Street, the 220,000 square foot project carries a price tag of $175.9 million. When the LEED Gold certified facility opens in August 2015, the departments of Children and Family Services, Public Social Services, Child Support Services, Probation, Health Services, Mental Health and Public Healthy shall be unified under one roof.

More low-rise action in the (sort of) Westside. Just one block east of the soon to be reactivated Helms Bakery, plans are in the works for six houses via the city’s small lot subdivision ordinance. The Venice Boulevard Urban Dwellings, designed by the Los Angeles based Modative, would rise three stories at 8732 Venice Boulevard. Floor plans range from 1,500 to 1,800 square feet. The homes would front directly onto Venice Boulevard, putting their front doors just a short walk away from the increasingly busy Expo Line.

Hollywood Boulevard is rapidly evolving along the path of the Metro Red Line, but some neighbors are going into the future kicking and screaming. Beverly Hills based developer Sonny Astani announced plans in October 2012 for a mixed-use project just across the street from the Hollywood/Western subway station. High Line West would create 280 residential units, 12,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space, and an elevated public park. Sounds okay, right?

Work is already underway on Kilroy Realty’s Columbia Square development, but that doesn’t mean it’s too late to change the project’s design…again. Rios Clementi Hale Studios, one of three architectural firms collaborating on the project, recently posted updated renderings of Columbia Square to their website. While a PR representative for RCH has informed me that these plans are in no way finalized, the new renderings indicate that a redesign may be in the works for the project’s 22-story residential tower.

A slew of hospitality projects are either planned or under construction in Downtown’s South Park district, but the 110 freeway has long stood to the west as both a physical and psychological barrier to the redevelopment wave. However, it appears at least one developer is willing to take the plunge. Plans were submitted earlier this month for a four-story, 151-room hotel with ground floor retail at the southwest corner of Olympic Boulevard and Beacon Avenue.

Building Los Angeles doesn’t often trek north of the Santa Monica Mountains, but a renewed focus on urban communities in the San Fernando Valley has started to change this. A variety of mixed-use developments are currently in the pipeline, concentrated in walkable hubs in Glendale, North Hollywood and Warner Center. One of the newest players in the arena is a project anointed as Sepulveda Square. Plans call for 131 apartments and just over 8,000 square feet of ground floor retail space, encased within a five-story structure north of the intersection of Sepulveda and Burbank Boulevards.

When we last checked in on Century West Partners’ K2LA development, the project’s first 130-unit building had topped out near the intersection of 7th and Berendo Streets. Just two months later, the landscape south of Wilshire Boulevard has changed dramatically. Construction crews are now busy excavating former parking lots to create the subterranean garages for the project’s second and third structures, located at 680 Berendo and 685 New Hampshire Avenue. The two buildings, both designed by architect David Forbes Hibbert, are expected to open in the second half of 2014, combining to create 347 apartments within walking distance of the busy Wilshire Vermont subway station.

Way back in 2013, WEHOville reported on a presentation from Cohen Brothers Realty about their massive redevelopment plans for Metro’s West Hollywood Bus Depot. The sprawling 10.4 acre site on Santa Monica Boulevard would be anchored by a pair of high-rise towers containing office, hotel and residential space. Closer to ground level, the project would feature retail space, a movie theater, an open-amphiteater, and a 50,000 square-foot sheriff’s station. Since this project would replace an existing bus maintenance facility, Cohen Brothers Realty would build a three-level replacement garage underneath the complex.

Last month, the LA City Planning Commission unanimously approved the new design guidelines for the massive Village at USC. The $1.1 billion development seeks to reinvent the dilapidated University Village shopping center as a thriving mixed-use complex, reminiscent of Glendale’s Americana at Brand. Elkus Manfredi Architects, the Boston-based firm which designed the Americana, has taken the lead on the project, with additional work from Michigan-based Harley Ellis Devereaux. Updated renderings show a series of brick clad structures, centered around a large plaza and bisected with wide, retail laden paseos.