New Sidewalk Highlights Progress at LAPD HQ

By Ed Fuentes and Eric Richardson
Published: Friday, October 10, 2008, at 08:12PM

Scenes from City Hall Eric Richardson [Flickr]

The new LAPD HQ, viewed from City Hall two weeks ago as concrete for the 1st street sidewalk was being poured.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — It’s not officially opened yet, but that hasn’t stopped Downtown pedestrians from making quick use of the wide new sidewalk lining the LAPD headquarters building’s 1st street frontage, one of several recent changes made as construction has advanced.

Exterior work on the headquarters building continues, but is rapidly entering its final phases. The sidewalk opening comes close on the heels of the removal of external construction elevators and the reopening of 2nd street’s full width.

The new LAPD building is slated to be completed in June of 2009. It contains 500,000 square feet of space, 25% more than the department currently has at Parker Center.


IMGP1680 Ed Fuentes

Pedestrians make quick use of the newly opened sidewalk on 1st street.

LAPD HQ Construction Eric Richardson

The construction site looked much different less than a year ago, as shown in this shot from November of 2007.

IMGP1686 Ed Fuentes

The wide sidewalk aligns with a similarly sized span next to the Caltrans building, completed in 2004.

LAPD_A Ed Fuentes

The red construction elevator came off the building two weeks ago, leaving a temporary gap in the structure's facade.


Comments

1
Brigham writes:

I love it! Wide sidewalks will EVENTUALLY become very important IF/WHEN Downtown LA becomes as dense with activity as people hope it will. I believe the wide sidewalks at LAPD HQ and Caltrans will become apparent in their function as the Grand Ave. Project completes. People tend to focus mainly on the area around the Music Center when thinking about the Grand Ave. Project, but the project’s scope includes the City Hall area as well. And as the Civic Center continues to build stronger connections with the surrounding districts, we’ll need spacious sidewalks around City Hall to act like de facto plazas where visitors to LA can stand and linger and gawk. Just my two cents.

# on Oct.13.2008 AT 01:33 PM
2
ubrayj02 writes:

That building is such an intolerable waste of a space that could have become the grandest central plaza in the L.A. Basin.

The wide sidewalks are nice, but that jagged knife edged building says a lot about what we care about in this town: suppression not free expression.

# on Oct.13.2008 AT 07:26 PM
3
David writes:

Am I the only downtown resident who finds the Caltrans Building ugly? I have friends who like it, but to me its still offensive… Odd huh?

# on Oct.14.2008 AT 01:44 PM

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