Downtown L.A. Sets Lofty Goals For Revival

Provocative downtown Los Angeles real estate developer, G.H. Palmer Associates, continued to stun the city with its latest civic design move: the announcement of the firms’s first adaptive reuse project, which is currently in the preconstruction stages, according to company representatives.

The Beverly Hills-based company, notorious for planting downtown with mammoth Mediterranean-style luxury apartments, will renovate a small 102-year-old building at 950 S. Broadway that originally housed the Southern California Gas Company headquarters. The conversion is facilitated by the Adaptive Reuse Ordinance (ARO) approved by the L.A. City Council in 1999, which aims to provide the city with a new housing supply and a source of economic revitalization.

Plans project the seven-story structure to be transformed into mixed-use apartment complex, featuring 30 live-work lofts, a rooftop amenity deck and nearly 7,500 square feet of commercial retail space on the street and basement levels for pedestrians to enjoy.

The developer will use designs from Killefer Flammang Architects to restore the building’s original 1913 façade. A smooth, white plaster exterior will replace the current gray concrete surfacing. The designers plan to recreate a decorative molding around the roofline and install metal balconies, undoing the industrial aesthetic maintained by the SoCal Gas Company until 1937.

Adaptive reuse of buildings under the ARO comes as part of a plan to reconstruct downtown L.A. while maintaining the city’s historical eminence. It facilitates an expedited approval process for historic buildings, waiving them of the zoning and code requirements that apply to new construction.

“The effect of the Adaptive Reuse Ordinance is pivotal toward the success of breaking away from urban core decay and moving toward a pedestrian-centric city,” said a representative of the LADCP Office of Historic Resources. “It’s a policy that tries to respect buildings’ historical significance while still allowing them life in the present day.”

The ARO provided a green light for the conversion of old or abandoned office buildings into residences, which has resulted in the creation of more than 7,300 housing units by 2008, just nine years after the ordinance was passed. That number nearly doubles the 4,300 units that were developed in the thirty years before the ARO came into effect, according to the Office of Historic Resources.

The ordinance has served as a powerful engine for revitalizing downtown L.A. as a residential hub, a role that was lost to the city with the rise of manufacturing in the area during the 1920s. The call for a larger commercial district led to the destruction of all qualities of housing in order to make room for suburbanization of entertainment and shopping after World War II. Culture and nightlife continued to wane, and the area now known as the Historic Core took on increasing characteristics of industrialization and poverty, as many displaced residents, unable to afford more suburban alternatives, congregated in the streets of downtown. By the time the recession of 2008 hit, this area of downtown was largely associated with the image of villages of homelessness, like Skid Row.

Adaptive reuse, and the general trend of residential growth in the Historic Core, is part of a larger vision for the city, coinciding with the change in global industrial market. As manufacturing jobs are outsourced from the country on a larger scale, the city must utilize its open space to keep thriving.

“In a competitive global context, it is critical that Los Angeles continually re-invigorates its core – Downtown – as a choice place to live, work and play in.,”said Linda Dispenza, a representative of the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council.

Malcom Jones, who works in the Historic Core, is among the many Angelinos who support the city’s makeover. “I’m actually taking a job in Santa Monica in a month, but I wish this kind of luxury housing was available when I first started working here,”Jones said.

Aenean tristique ligula nec felis commodo maximus. In pharetra et erat eget convallis.

“It’s really an up and coming neighborhood. The developments are popping up, and we are really starting to see that development effort come to fruition, as far as making the atmosphere more viable for people who are trying to see the city and experience what L.A. has to offer,” he continued. “It’s kind of a stark contrast between Santa Monica and here, but I don't think that’s necessarily a bad thing. I think it’s good for the city to encourage a distinct personality in the downtown area.”

The Downtown L.A. Neighborhood council also sees an improvement of public transportation in its vision for a vibrant city. “Downtown L.A. predated the invasion of the car, and there is no reason to doubt that we can outlast it,” Dispenza said on behalf of the council.

G.H. Palmer Associates expects to finish construction on the 950 S. Broadway building by May 2016. A budget for the project has not yet been revealed.