This what you’re referring to?
Yes that’s it. I have seen mountain lions and coyotes walking down the street we live on. (obviously not at the same time, lol). Fortunately only at night but when they do the dogs go crazy. Lots of wildlife around here, which is amazing considering there is a population of approx 150,000 living between these 2 bridges and another 120,000 directly behind the Conejo Valley.
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Per LAisthePlace:
Big news on the Colburn expansion! Much further along than I was expecting. I don’t know how to post the full LA Times article, but I’ll link it here for whoever does.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainmen…ll-los-angeles
A massive $270 million of the $350 million goal has already been raised. Impressive stuff from the Los Angeles philanthropic community.
New renders / design by Gehry that don’t have quite the “wow” as the previous ones, but still show this to be a very classy design that will be quite the asset for the Downtown community.
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Today the Thousand Oaks Acorn has an ad for the Groundbreaking Ceremony of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing on April 22, 2022. Still waiting to hear any word of the proposal for a second wildlife crossing.
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will connect the LAX People mover with the C and Crenshaw/LAX Lines
Steven Sharp
Urbanize Los Angeles
April 6, 2022
A groundbreaking ceremony may have occurred way back in June 2021, but with the Crenshaw/LAX Line now “substantially complete”, Metro has finally started work on a $900-million transit hub which will connect the regional rail network to Los Angeles International Airport.
The Airport Metro Connector station, located on a roughly 9.5-acre site at the intersection of Aviation Boulevard and 96th Street, will enable transfers between the Crenshaw/LAX and Green (C) Lines and LAX’s new automated people mover system. The at-grade transit hub will include:
- a 16-bay bus plaza with capacity for charging infrastructure;
- a multi-level active transportation and bike hub;
- a vehicle drop-off zone;
- a customer service center;
- public toilet facilities beyond the fare paid zone;
- commercial space; and
- a sculpture by Los Angeles artist Glenn Kaino, which will be incorporated into the station’s hub structure.
Construction of station, which expected to open in 2024, could disrupt service on the as-yet unfinished Crenshaw/LAX Line, which is currently expected to begin serving passengers in late 2022 or early 2023. While trains will not be able to reach the new rail station during that time period, Metro intends to maintain access to the adjacent rail maintenance and storage facility during construction.
Most recently estimated to cost $900 million, the budget for the AMC now far outstrips the pre-construction estimate of $637 million. As of June 202, Metro had secured roughly $711 million in funding for the project, Proposition A and C funds intended to make up for the financing gap.’
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Los Angeles to Electrify City’s Entire 10,000-Vehicle Fleet in Carbon-Free Push - Bloomberg
Los Angeles to Electrify City’s Entire 10,000-Vehicle Fleet
Traffic on Highway 101 in Los Angeles, California.
Photographer: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg
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April 7, 2022, 11:00 AM CDT
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Los Angeles plans to electrify its fleet of more than 10,000 vehicles as part of an effort to become one of the first U.S. cities to rely on carbon-free energy by 2035.
The Electric Vehicle Master Plan was unanimously approved by the LA city council on Wednesday. The switch to electric vehicles will start at the city’s largest departments of sanitation, recreation and transportation.
Expansion of the EV charging network will also be considered as part of the rollout, according to a statement from Councilmember Paul Krekorian, who sponsored the initiative along with Council President Pro Tempore Mitch O’Farrell.
The LA Department of Water and Power currently projects about 97,000 charging stations will be needed by 2030, according to Krekorian.
In August, President Joe Biden set a target for half of all new vehicles purchased in the U.S. be zero-emissions models by 2030.
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Per sopas ej:
Metro celebrates completion of track work for Regional Connector project
BY RICK JAGER , APRIL 18, 2022
Reaching a major construction milestone for the Regional Connector project, Metro has officially completed construction of all the track work, guideway systems and station platform areas for the Grand Av/Bunker Hill Station, paving the way for train and systems testing.
Metro has contracted with Regional Connector Constructors (RCC), a joint venture between Skanska USA Civil West California District, Inc., and Traylor Brothers, Inc., to design and build the $1.8-billion Regional Connector that will connect the A (Blue), E (Expo) and L (Gold) Lines in downtown Los Angeles, saving Metro transit riders valuable time by eliminating transfers and giving them a one-seat ride through DTLA. The entire transit project is now 90 percent complete.
Metro’s contractor has been able to achieve one of the best safety record of all of Metro construction projects, with more than six million hours worked without any lost time due to injury or incident. This is a testament to all the dedicated men and women working on this project representing one of the best safety records in the construction field.
The Regional Connector will also add equitable access to new destinations such as Broadway Historic Core and the performing and Visual Arts venues of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Colburn School, MOCA and the Broad Museum.
The Regional Connector Transit Project is a 1.9-mile underground light-rail extension that will connect the A Line (Blue), the E Line (Expo) and the L Line (Gold) in downtown Los Angeles and will include three new stations that include the Little Tokyo/Arts District Station at 1st Street/Central Avenue, the Historic Broadway Station at 2nd Street/Broadway and the Grand Av Arts/Bunker Hill Station at 2nd Place/Hope Street.
Once fully completed and operational, the project is expected to serve 88,000 riders daily – including 17,000 new riders – and save commuters up to 20 minutes by reducing the need to transfer for those riding to and through downtown L.A. The project will offer seamless North-South and East-West rail service — with one light rail running between Long Beach and Azusa and a second light rail line between Santa Monica and East Los Angeles. The two lines will share five DTLA stations where riders can easily transfer.
Construction of Metro’s Grand Av Arts/Bunker Hills Station has been a complex undertaking due to the depth of the station, which is approximately 100 feet below street level — the deepest rail station in the agency’s entire rail system. More than 33,000 cubic yards of steel and concrete have been used to construct the station. More than 90,000 cubic yards of soil was excavated to build the station.
With track and guideway work now completed, Metro has begun train and systems testing in preparation for revenue operations, which is anticipated this Fall. Workers will now be concentrating on finishing the station’s plaza concourse and ancillary levels, testing remaining HVAC and fire/life safety systems, and completing station artwork, elevator and escalator installations.
To mitigate noise and vibration impacts to the community’s preforming art institutions the Grand Avenue Arts/Bunker Hill Station uses a special type of floating slab track system.
Station Art
Also featured at the Grand Av Arts/Bunker Hill station is new artwork at the concourse, designed by artist Pearl C. Hsiung, that towers over 60 feet— the tallest glass mosaic mural in the Metro system. Titled High Prismatic, the work recognizes the ever shifting and dynamic geological and cultural landscape of Bunker Hill. View the time lapse video of the mosaic dry-fit process completed by Metro Art prior to the mosaic installation. At the train platform, a new artwork on porcelain enamel steel designed by artist Mungo Thomson titled Negative Space, brings a stunning image of the cosmos, captured by the Hubble Telescope, underground.
Site-specific artworks commissioned by Metro Art are featured at each of the three new stations along the Regional Connector Transit Project. Artists Andrea Bowers, Audrey Chan, Mark Steven Greenfield, Pearl C. Hsiung, Clare Rojas, Mungo Thomson and Clarence Williams were selected through an open, competitive selection process following the recommendation of a panel of community-based arts professionals. Learn more about these artworks and Metro Art at Art – Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
For more information on the Regional Connector Transit Project and construction updates, please visit to Regional Connector Transit Project - LA Metro.
[…]
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I’m hyped. Most Angelenos have no idea how transformative this relatively small project is going to be.
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" The Port of Long Beach’s planned Pier B On-Dock Rail Support Facility, which will shift cargo movement from trucks to rails, was approved by the U.S. Maritime Administration, the port announced Monday.
The facility — the centerpiece of the port’s rail capital improvement program — will allow the port to directly transfer containers to and from marine terminals by train, which will reduce truck traffic and make the process cleaner and more efficient.
No cargo trucks will visit the facility, and instead, smaller segments will be brought to the facility and joined together into a full-sized train, port officials said.
“Simply put, the Pier B On-Dock Rail Support Facility will move cargo faster and with fewer environmental impacts,” said Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero. “We thank MARAD for its work completing the EIS, which allows us to receive federal funding for a facility that will benefit the whole country.”
The U.S. Maritime Administration on Monday issued a Final Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision approving the project, which was awarded a $52.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation last year.
Port officials expect construction to begin in 2023, with the first arrival, departure and storage tracks completed in 2025. Additional tracks would come online 2030, followed by project completion in 2032.
“The Port of Long Beach is a gateway for $200 billion in job-generating trade each year,” said Long Beach Harbor Commission President Steven Neal. “This project will help cargo move more efficiently, and it’s vital to maintaining our competitiveness and meeting our environmental goals.”
The project is named “Alloy”
Steven Sharp
Urbanize Los Angeles
April 27, 2022
On the east side of Downtown Los Angeles, a pair of orange tower cranes have arrived at 520 Mateo Street, future site of a mixed-use development from Carmel Partners which is set to become the first high-rise building in the Arts District. The project, which only recent began showing signs of activity after two years of dormancy, will be named “Alloy,” according to social media posts by the developer.
Located on a site which also abuts the 4th Street Bridge and Santa Fe Avenue, the project calls for the construction of high-rise and mid-rise structures featuring a total of 475 live/work apartments, 105,000 square feet of offices, more than 18,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, and a 650-car garage.
The visual centerpiece of project is a new 35-story, 390-foot-tall tower which is set to become the Arts District’s tallest building at completion. Works Progress Architecture and Solomon Cordwell Buenz are lead the design team for Alloy, which is depicted in renderings with a contemporary look and amenity decks atop its rooftop and podium levels. Plans also call for reactivating a former rail spur between Mateo and Santa Fe as a pedestrian paseo.
While construction may now be full steam ahead for Alloy, the project’s future came into doubt in 2020, following the revelation of the project’s connections to a City Hall corruption scandal centered on former Los Angeles City Councilmember Jose Huizar, who is now awaiting trial in federal court facing charges of accepting bribes from real estate developers. Huizar is alleged to have accepted political contributions from Carmel on behalf of his wife’s short-lived City Council run during the approval process for the project. During that process, Huizar pushed to reduce the amount of affordable housing required within the project.
Since then, Carmel Partners has paid a $1.2-million fine to resolve its involvement in the corruption probe.
While Alloy is set to be the Arts District’s first high-rise, it likely will not be the last. New towers designed by Bjarke Ingels Group and Herzog & de Meuron are in the works nearby, and prolific developer Onni Group is planning a 36-story high-rise just south of 7th Street.
San Francisco-based Carmel is also behind plans for a similar high-rise just south of Beverly Hills city limits on La Cienega Boulevard, as well as mixed-use and multifamily residential developments proposed or under construction in West Adams, East Hollywood, and Sawtelle.
More than 900 homes could be added to the nine-acre site
Steven Sharp
Urbanize Los Angeles
May 23, 2022
A year-and-a-half ago, Abode Communities and AvalonBay Communities were selected to lead a long-proposed revamp of the West Los Angeles Civic Center. Now, the two developers must negotiate the hard part of the process: CEQA.
The West L.A. Commons project, per an initial study released this month by the Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning, would include 1.1 million square feet of new development across a nine-acre site bounded by Santa Monica Boulevard, Iowa Avenue, Corinth Avenue, and Butler Avenue. Plans call for the construction of nine new buildings featuring a combined total of:
926 residential units (including 495 market-rate and 431 income-restricted units)
- 36,569 square feet of neighborhood-serving retail and restaurant uses
- 76,341 square feet of municipal offices, and
- a 23,868-square-foot replacement facility for the Felicia Mahood Multipurpose Center.
Plans also call for more than 100,000 square feet of publicly-accessible open space on the campus - roughly double what exists today - as well as parking for over 1,500 vehicles.
West L.A. Commons - designed by a team which includes Koning Eizenberg, Olin, and AC Martin - would include contemporary low-rise structures, ranging between two and eight stories in height. The new construction would be arranged around a network of interior paseos and courtyards.
Several structures from the existing mid-century campus are to be retained, including a public library, a police station, and a historic band stand, which are not slated for changes. The former West L.A. Courthouse, however, is slated to be converted into an arts pavilion with housing and commercial uses.
Pending approvals and the availability of financing, construction of the redevelopment scheme is slated to occur over a roughly four-year period commencing in 2024 and concluding by 2028.
The comment period for the West L.A. Commons initial study will run through July 1. A scoping meeting is scheduled for June 14.
The current plan for West L.A. Commons dates to 2020, when the City and County of Los Angeles agreed to jointly release a request for proposals seeking developers for the publicly-owned land. The winning team of AvalonBay and Abode Communities, which was selected by a panel which included both County and City officials was announced in January 2021.
Since partnering on the West L.A. project, Abode and Avalon have expanded their partnership to another publicly-owned site in Southern California: the former Marine Air Corps Station in Tustin. The two developers were recently selected to build more than 1,200 homes on a 20-acre section of the former military facility.
Per Sopas ej:
Photos of the 6th Street Viaduct after the ribbon cutting last night.
Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times
Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times
Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times
Here’s a video someone took of the ribbon cutting. You can see the lighting on the arches cycle through different colors, so I’m thinking that’s why in some of the earlier pictures I posted of the bridge lit up in red/white/blue, the lighting looks a little off, because the picture was taken in mid-color change.
Per Hydrant:
George Lucas Museum progress is looking spicy!
- 520 Mateo Street from a week ago
Clippers are building a new basketball arena in Inglewood
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Is LA booming again or is it my sense?
Nice! That’s right by SoFi, as it should be
Also this is what I’m talking about with new stadiums being miles bettee than the older ones
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You’re not wrong. There’s construction pretty much everywhere I look these days. Developers are increasingly taking advantage of TOC incentives which allow for higher density with less parking, and there are some exciting nodes rising around Metro stops (especially along the E Line in Culver City, West Adams, Santa Monica and West LA; the forthcoming K Line in Inglewood and Leimert Park; and the D Line extension to the westside, in Mid-City). There aren’t many tall buildings in the pipeline, but as someone who lives here, I would much rather LA have a relatively small skyline with impressive density and street life, than the other way around.
Check out LA YIMBY for more coverage, as well as https://la.urbanize.city/
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The Los Angeles Metro “dedicated” yet another light rail station without actually starting rail service. Yes, they have a fetish for cutting ribbons.
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After all it is the home of self promotion, awards given to each other, and celebrating themselves with plaques in sidewalks. Why not a ribbon cutting ceremony for the hell of it. 
The Los Angeles Metro “dedicated” yet another light rail station without actually starting rail service. Hooray for meaningless self-congratulatory nonsense!