Wrapping up the Downtown Living Open House
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — The LA Times today has a brief mention of the Downtown Living Open House. I promised a write-up earlier in the weekend and then got busy, so I'll go ahead and wrap it up for you real quick now. I've put my pictures from the event up over on my flickr account (I'll link to specific pictures in the write-up).
As I mentioned earlier, there were a lot of participating projects that didn't have much to show. I understand that construction presents issues when it comes to letting people inside a building, but the folks at the PE Lofts building did it well and I would have loved to see a little more like that out of the Subway Terminal Building (err... Metro 417). I thought they were going to have a tour when on entering they gave you a hardhat, but it turns out the hardhat was just to enter the fairly construction-free lobby.
1100 Wilshire offered some great views, but not a lot else. They were taking people up to floor 32, which is gutted and blank. Good for looking at the city, but not much when it comes to visualizing condos. A similar project, 801 S. Grand, also had the blank gutted floor but presented the project a lot better through floor plans marked out on the concrete. The views from there were similarly impressive.
I already mentioned my disappointment in the Eastern Columbia building. I know nothing more about that project than I did before this weekend.
The Santa Fe lofts looked good, but I'd been in there before. The new units are a lot more finished and expensive looking than they used to be when my friend first moved in their a couple years ago.
All in all it was a fun event, and it was good to see so many people looking at units Downtown. Next time, though, I'd love to see a few more projects that actually had something to show.
celia on February 28, 2005, at 07:20PM – #1
It seemed like all of downtown Los Angeles was on the streets, our paths probably crossed over the weekend. Didn't check out the downtown housing tour, I was checking out the Broadway Theatre District instead.
Shawn Graham on February 28, 2005, at 07:40PM – #2
I agree that the Eastern Columbia building was disappointing. There was no reason to even go there. There was nothing to see, they had no useful brochures and the people inside knew practically nothing about the project.
I'm not sure why the Sante Fe Lofts were even on the tour. Although nice to look at they only have six units available. All six are small at around 600-700 ft2. No real need to have thousands of people through to look at them. But I guess if they leased all six it was worth it for them.
Metro 417 was one that I really wanted to see. It looked good, but I was hoping to be able to see more.
jim winstead on February 28, 2005, at 08:19PM – #3
it certainly seems like all of the downtown bloggers must have crossed paths this weekend. i went on the conservancy's broadway tour (which include the tower theater) and also hit a few of the open houses. the only one i went to that was actually showing units was the old gas company lofts. they were nice, but pricy.
e; on March 01, 2005, at 01:21AM – #4
Seriously... I was walking from the Eastern Columbia to the Tower at the same time as a big group was walking into the Orpheum (around noon). I'm sure that it was either the theater tour or the Tower/Orpheum/Los Angeles open house thing Celia was on. -e;