In 1876 the city of Los Angeles named the increasingly fashionable hill on the western side of the town 'Bunker Hill' for the centennial in honor of the Battle of Bunker Hill. 80 years later it was quite in middle of a 7m metro area, deemed blighted, and became the site of the nation's first tax-increment finance project. MA was late coming to the TIF game, with City Square in Worcester being the first example there I think. Bunker Hill was razed, the city built a new infrastructure of tunnels and garages that made the hill into what is basically a huge pile of terraced concrete, and assembled massive parcels for private development. Its almost impossible to relate the topography of the place. Still some parcels are only used as parking lots, though some (like the one below) are slated for the Community Redevelopment Agency's mixed-use Grand Avenue Project, to feature several towers and a new park. Related Companies, developer, Frank Gehry, architects.
Until the 1980s the area was fairly desolate; Omega Man was filmed there becuase of its post-apocolyptic appearance in the 1970s.
Today it remains a little frightening at times:
Below, from Pershing Square, the Library Tower, designed by Pei. The Library of LA funded its 160m renovation in the mid-90s by transfering its development rights to neighboring parcels. Hence the Library Tower, the tallest west of the Mississippi (supposedly the US foiled a terrorist attack against the building in 2005, and George Bush mistakenly referred to it as the 'Liberty Tower'). Today it is owned by US Bank. However the penthouse suite is home to a pornography distribution company owning 250+ websites.
Below, the LA Library with the ARCO towers and plaza in the background (1973)
Many developers have gone higher and left little plazas. There is a stipulation that 1% of all development money spent in the redevelopment zone (now almost 50 years old!) goes to public art. This has made for lots of desolate plazas with brightly colored modern sculpture. Here's one of the newer spaces, not bad for what it is:
In the background of the above picture is one of the most harshly critizicized buildings in Los Angeles, the Bonaventura Hotel, built in the late 1970s when downtown was pioneer territory for corporate types. It's basically 5 glass pillars on top of 3 stories of concrete with only one street level entrance. All other entrances are skybridges to nearby plazas or office towers. The interior is also very disorienting (intentionally):
While Bunker Hill is set to remain an impregnable corporate 9-5 theme park, the area around it is seeing intense residential development aimed at a new, young crowd. You get the picture, it's almost as easy to find an apple-tini now as it is to find a pitcher of Tecate. I like both so I don't really care.
Attracting residents are both the influx of west-side cash and chic, but also historic neighborhoods such as Little Tokyo.
Downtown LA might be a very nice place to be in another decade, a pretty incredible feat considering it was in decay for most of the 20th century.
And just to put us in context, a photo I got towards downtown on a departing flight right after a rainshower, maybe a month ago during the "winter"
Until the 1980s the area was fairly desolate; Omega Man was filmed there becuase of its post-apocolyptic appearance in the 1970s.
Today it remains a little frightening at times:
Below, from Pershing Square, the Library Tower, designed by Pei. The Library of LA funded its 160m renovation in the mid-90s by transfering its development rights to neighboring parcels. Hence the Library Tower, the tallest west of the Mississippi (supposedly the US foiled a terrorist attack against the building in 2005, and George Bush mistakenly referred to it as the 'Liberty Tower'). Today it is owned by US Bank. However the penthouse suite is home to a pornography distribution company owning 250+ websites.
Below, the LA Library with the ARCO towers and plaza in the background (1973)
Many developers have gone higher and left little plazas. There is a stipulation that 1% of all development money spent in the redevelopment zone (now almost 50 years old!) goes to public art. This has made for lots of desolate plazas with brightly colored modern sculpture. Here's one of the newer spaces, not bad for what it is:
In the background of the above picture is one of the most harshly critizicized buildings in Los Angeles, the Bonaventura Hotel, built in the late 1970s when downtown was pioneer territory for corporate types. It's basically 5 glass pillars on top of 3 stories of concrete with only one street level entrance. All other entrances are skybridges to nearby plazas or office towers. The interior is also very disorienting (intentionally):
While Bunker Hill is set to remain an impregnable corporate 9-5 theme park, the area around it is seeing intense residential development aimed at a new, young crowd. You get the picture, it's almost as easy to find an apple-tini now as it is to find a pitcher of Tecate. I like both so I don't really care.
Attracting residents are both the influx of west-side cash and chic, but also historic neighborhoods such as Little Tokyo.
Downtown LA might be a very nice place to be in another decade, a pretty incredible feat considering it was in decay for most of the 20th century.
And just to put us in context, a photo I got towards downtown on a departing flight right after a rainshower, maybe a month ago during the "winter"
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