Park Fifth Quietly Moves Forward

Comparing the model’s condominium tower with the existing Title Guarantee, it looks like the project will rise approximately 830 feet above Hill Street. That’s a bit higher than the Gas Company tower next door.

First thought is what a dramatic visual impact this development will have, as viewed from Pershing Square. But on second thought, the reflection off of all of that glass at certain times of the afternoon (xx weeks before/after the summer solstice) is likely to cook the trees and the plants and anyone who spends too much time in an already underpopulated Pershing Square.

Second thought is that this could force a redesign of the square to include desert plants, rocks, gravel and large (shade) umbrellas. Just call it the Joshua Tree Scenario, further desertification of the Southwest.

Third thought is that the developer ought to have hired Thom Mayne/Morphosis. His/their formulation for a new tower in the center of Paris is exactly the sort of highrise that Downtown sorely needs. Local talent is very much needed at/for this location…

Thom Mayne’s skyscraper in Paris is not in the city, it is La Defense, just on the outskirts, where it is legal to build tall.

My problem with Mayne is that he is not an urbanist. Look at Caltrans. It’s a great building, but has 3 BLANK walls on 3 sides. It’s contemptuous of the sidewalk and pedestrians.

KPF is a competent (if corporate) architectural firm with vast experience building good, urban buildings. The idea behind Park Fifth is to give a strong nod to “California living,” creating open, indoor/outdoor spaces in a high rise environment. Sounds great to me.

I just hope the builders don’t skimp on materials, and do it right. It’s still possible to try to build on the cheap and wreck the design.

I think the fact that the glazing is set back so far from the edge of each balcony, will cause the reflections to be much less than if it were flush, like the Gas Co. tower. I didn’t like the elevation renderings at first, but - as Bert pointed out, they are making an attempt to stack several hundred Case Study #22 Houses one on op of the other in our hood. If that works, It could be a fantastic building.

I think that something more organic in form could better complement the Title Guarantee tower. The podium of the new tower overwhelms the bulk of Title Guarantee. I’m sure that Morphosis would program the base of whatever solution, to be more pedestrian friendly than the government machine called Caltrans. I can’t agree more with Bert on that. However, California indoor/outdoor residential design involves land/landscape, a ‘yard’ - not a balcony six hundred feet above the sidewalk. Imagine all of the barbeques and potted petunias that’ll rain down on Hill when those fiercest of Pacific storms move in off the ocean. A formulation as what is proposed for La Defense I feel is just what is needed here at the east edge of the highrise district, so near to the Beaux Arts Historic Core. Something sculptural!

Suggestion: go and stand at the northeast corner of Sixth and Hill. Look up towards the Title Guarantee Building and imagine a vertical 830 ft. wall rising up from the Hill Street frontage. The taller building needs to be on the west side of the parcel so that there is a gradation, a stepping up from a hotel on Hill, to the condo tower, to the Gas Company Tower and to the U.S. Bank Tower. THAT is what I would call urban design, not seventy six floors of Case Study houses pancaked above Hill Street.

Practically speaking, our only two choices are this building or a parking lot, like it is now. I’ll take the building over a surface parking lot any day. Sure, I wish Philharmonic Hall was still there. Too late. This building has some problems, but it’s not so awful that people will take to the streets, demanding the head of the architect. So I think it will go through as is. As far as a “stepping up” effect, I believe the Title Guarantee bldg. will help provide that effect from the southern elevation.

Great, just what LA needs: Another vacant building.

Folks in the neighborhood received our letter today informing us that the city’s Deputy Advisory Agency will consider Park Fifth’s Vesting Tentative Tract Map on May 7 when it will also consider testimony on the merits of this project. I’m still curious which set of deep pockets is set to underwrite the financing at this particular time.

What would be more imaginative would be a single tower to combine both the hotel and condominiums. The KPF scheme is so much like standard Sixties highrises. The Morphosis project in Paris is known as the Phare Tower.

To see renderings, check out: http://www.dezeen.com/2006/11/29/morphosis-show-paris-tower-images/