Home Tour: Downtown Urban Living
Sunday June 8, 2008
Sorry, this tour is now sold out.
Notice to ticket holders: Check-in and map pick-up for the Downtown Tour will take place at the following location:
Los Angeles Convention Center
1201 S. Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA 90015
To pick-up your map, enter the Los Angeles Convention Center from Gilbert Lindsey Drive. You will see a white shade canopy set up in front of the entrance to the West Hall building. Please note you cannot park on Gilbert Lindsey Drive…..you may just pick-up your map at this staging area and immediately move your vehicle. Parking is provided beneath the West Hall of the Convention Center. The parking rate is $12 (no in and out privileges)
Map pick-up hours are from 9:30am – 11:30am on Sunday.
Up until 10-15 years ago, the Los Angeles downtown had been written off as a dead zone, occupied only by workers during the day and the homeless at night. In the last decade, downtown has been transformed into a residential magnet.
Thanks to an ordinance that allowed commercial buildings to be turned residential, hundreds of office buildings, dating from the Gilded Age to the 1960s, have been adapted into condos and rental towers. And tons of new multi-family residential towers have been newly built or are on the boards, from South Park on the West of Downtown to Little Tokyo on the East. This tour will show the best of adaptive reuse and new multi-family buildings in downtown.
Please note that each property on the tour is a private residence. These are not showrooms, sales offices or model homes.
Private Residence at ToY Factory Lofts
This northwest facing ToY Factory loft is 3300 square feet and features a curved wall of four large factory windows, polished concrete floor and a 12.5’ sandblasted concrete, board-formed ceiling with mushroom capped columns. 120 degree views of the downtown skyline, the river bridges and the trains that chug past them, Dodger Stadium, migratory birds and the setting sun animate the exterior.
A sinuous double-arced wall with a ribbed Poplar skin (designed by Aleks Istanbullu Architects and reminiscent of Alvar Aalto) divides spatial uses without fully enclosing any part of the unit. The wall defines a screening room on one side while providing visual privacy for the master bath and bedroom on the other. Raised two steps above the floor, the bath area features an open shower comprised of a poured-in-place concrete wall. An antique claw-foot tub sits exposed on the raised platform while the vanity and toilet are enveloped in the point of the arcs.
ToY, a former purpose built (1924) warehouse and later a toy factory, is one of three buildings that together form a new live/work community on the 1800 block of Industrial Street of the downtown LA Arts District. These buildings feature real open plan lofts and substantial, already-operating ground floor retail. ToY’s 121 lofts opened in 2004. Biscuit Company Lofts’ 104 lofts opened in 2007. Industrial Street Art Studios open in July 2008.
Private Residence at the Douglas Building
Photos by F. Arcaute
The Douglas Building is a remarkable presence on the corner of Third and Spring Streets in the historic Downtown neighborhood of the Old Bank District. Built in 1898, it is one of the few remaining vestiges of Los Angeles’ 19th century architectural treasures, and has recently been transformed by developer Goodwin Gaw, into modern residential lofts.
Gaw, an international developer and real estate investor, is most famously known for the transformation of the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles into today’s hot spot for the Hollywood A-lists celebrities. Gaw also helped create the loft movement in downtown Los Angeles, converting over 100,000 square feet of empty historical buildings into residential lofts. Douglas Building Lofts is considered one of the best lofts conversion project in downtown Los Angeles.
Los Angeles-based Rockefeller Architects is the firm that transformed the historic office building into adaptive reuse residential lofts.Clarence Chiang Jr. and his wife and business partner, Hannah Lee, an interior designer, comprise Team HC, one of Hong Kong’s hottest design couples. With the prestigious renovation of The Douglas Building and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the couple is best known for their streamlined aesthetic and original vision from Asia.
Private Residence at Santa Fe Lofts
Situated in the Gallery Row District of downtown Los Angeles, Santa Fe Lofts offers live-work spaces in two historic buildings. Each loft boasts classic downtown views from oversized windows; other timeless features could include original hexagonal plaster columns, transoms and doors with new wire glass, skylights and lightwells, mosaic tile and sealed or polished distressed concrete floors. With kitchens and baths designed for modern comfort with style, spaces blending vintage details with updated amenities for modern life and work, and a rooftop sun deck, Santa Fe Lofts brings the downtown revival home to creative urbanites.
Private Residence at Elleven
The developer of Elleven, The South Group, took their success in Portland’s Pearl District to the central business district of Los Angeles, a large, open, and underutilized area that had not seen new housing in 20 years. Located on the corner of 11th Street and Grand Avenue, this 397,000 square foot, mixed-use residential project, designed by Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects, incorporates lessons learned in Portland, but is designed for an LA sensibility.
The 13-story building has 176 units, ranging from 770 to 3,100 square feet. Floor to ceiling windows in all units provide spectacular views of downtown. Elleven is the first Certified LEED Gold Condominium building in the state of California, acknowledging the South Group’s efforts to not only build green, but create a true new downtown neighborhood complete with a dynamic pedestrian-friendly streetscape.
This 1,500 square feet, two bedroom, two bathroom modern home uses earth tone colors in the fabrics and walls and a selection of cozy and modern furnishings. Designed by its owner, Amy Arroyo of Arroyo Interior Design, the addition of perimeter lighting, custom designed desk, console table and built-in bookcase/bench that matches the kitchen wood and color makes this home relaxing, efficient and enjoyable. The evening is the best setting, where perimeter lighting creates a glow to the backdrop city views of downtown.
Private Residence at The Hellman Building
Photos by F. Arcaute
The Hellman Building
The Hellman Building is a six story stone and architectural tile commercial structure with classical decor. The building features 104 loft units including 2 penthouses. Ceiling heights are up to 18 feet. The top floor units have walk-up loft areas. Paneled jambs, scroll brackets, and a corbelled cornice frame the recessed entry. Above a stringcourse, the gray stone body of the building continues the four bay division, with a single window in each story above the entry bay, and paired windows in the remaining bays.
Private Residence at the Bartlett Building.
Photos by F. Arcaute
The Bartlett Building
The A. G. Bartlett Building was designed in 1911 by well-known Los Angeles architects John Parkinson and Edwin Bergstrom in the Beaux Arts style. Since Spring Street was the heart of the city’s financial district (the “Wall Street of the West”) the ground floor of the building was initially leased by the German-American Savings Bank and fitted out as a teller’s hall. The building underwent a major facelift in 1937 in an Art-Deco ‘Moderne’ style and the lower stories were refaced in limestone with a frieze depicting industry, agriculture and transportation over the Seventh Street entrance, second floor spandrels and a geometric, patterned sidewalk which is still visible around the building’s exterior. Between 1911 and 1922, the upper floors were tenanted by the Union Oil Company, which eventually moved to larger offices at 617 Seventh Street.
In 2002, the building was converted to residential use under the Adaptive Reuse Ordinance and now comprises 139 condominiums, limited parking for residents, and some ground floor retail outlets.
This light-filled residence is a junior penthouse with 18 foot brickbarrell ceilings, huge industrial windows, polished concrete floors and a large deck overlooking Spring Street.
Register now! Space is limited!
Properties and schedule are subject to change without notice.
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