Growth & Development

Same Old Story, and May Sings the Same Old Song

By Eric Richardson — March 12, 2008
11 Comments

The L.A. Times takes a shot at Downtown in a story just posted, titling it "Downtown not the center of it all". The story mixes a few anecdotes with a dropped median sales price stat for condos to create its conclusion of "signs that downtown's residential boom is slowing, if not stalling out altogether." What's telling about the journalism is the set of four...


Welcome Back, Rowan

By Eric Richardson — March 12, 2008
2 Comments

Welcome Back, Rowan

Just in time for its Saturday Premiere event, the Rowan Lofts has shed its scaffolding and once again said hello to the Historic Core. There's still much to be done. Today, construction crews are hard at work installing glass into the building's window frames. Even in the building's unfinished state, it's striking how completely the removal of the scaffolding...


9th & Flower Construction Marches Upward

By Eric Richardson — March 12, 2008
2 Comments

Weekend Construction

These two shots show six weeks of progress on 717 W. 9th, the Meruelo Maddux project rising at the intersection of 9th and Flower. In the time between shots the project has added six of its residential floors. It will eventually rise to 35-stories. The project broke ground in November of 2006, and started building upward in early summer, 2007. Watching a...


Designer Turns an Ugly Stairway to a Real Entrance

By Eric Richardson — March 10, 2008
1 Comment

Maison Bertet

When Maison Bertet officially opens its retail space this week in the basement of Premiere Towers (621 S. Spring), it'll be looking to wow some loft owners with impressive ideas for decorating their space. After seeing the way they transformed an ugly entryway to their basement space, I'm pretty sure they'll be successful. Premiere Towers was converted to housing...


Chinatown Median Gets Its Landscaping Touch

By Ed Fuentes — March 10, 2008
4 Comments

New Median

Nearly a year in construction, the large asphalt median at North Main and Alameda has completed its transformation into landscaped pedestrian space. Work began in April of last year, taking out tracks that had survived from the area's industrial past. As the edges of the roadway were torn up, old brick foundation was unveiled, a reminder of what roadways...


Speakers Tell of Changes in Industrial Use

By Eric Richardson — March 07, 2008
5 Comments

Downtown L.A.

Not all "industry" is created equal. That's a fact that seems to get lost in many of the stats brought out by the Planning department to support its Industrial Land Use policy. At Tuesday's Planning and Land Use meeting several speakers took the chance to clarify. Mark Shinbane, V.P. of Ore-Cal Seafood, told how his company has expanded in recent years from...


Baking a New Story on Broadway

By Ed Fuentes — March 06, 2008
12 Comments

L.A. Bakery

From fresh Mexican bread at Grand Central Market to apple pie at Clifton's, Broadway has long been a spot for picking up something baked. In between the two sits a new spot that brings a different aesthetic to a street that's seldom known for understated design. Rafael and Lupe Martinez opened L.A. Gourmet Bakery in July of 2007 after 18 months of preparation...


Arts District Expansion Gets Planning OK

By Eric Richardson — March 04, 2008
7 Comments

Arts District

Appearing before the city council's Planning and Land Use committee just minutes ago, Planning Chief Gail Goldberg told the committee that she agreed with Councilman Jose Huizar's efforts to extend the southern boundaries of the Arts District. The PLUM committee passed the motion before it to do so, and that motion will now go to City Council tomorrow. Huizar...


Industrial Land Use Goes to PLUM

By Eric Richardson — March 04, 2008

In just a minute (I better get moving) city council's Planning and Land Use committee will begin an agenda heavy in Industrial Land Use items. I'll be at the meeting and will be posting live updates to blogdowntown's twitter account. If you haven't followed along, read up on this Industrial Land Use primer to prep yourself for the full recap, which will be...


Tomorrow Arda's Celebrates Four Years, but that Wasn't Really the Beginning

By Eric Richardson — February 28, 2008
6 Comments

Arda's Cafe

Tomorrow, February 29th, Arda's Cafe will be celebrating its fourth anniversary, and owner Jon Toktas is eager to have office workers and residents come down from 11am - 2pm to join in the festivities. It was on March 1st, 2004, that Toktas opened Arda's, the cafe named after his mother. The eatery was new, but the business builds on a foundation laid by both...