By Antonio Pacheco
Californian practice Hanson LA Architecture has revealed new renderings depicting the firm’s master plan for the City Market of Los Angeles complex in the Fashion District neighborhood of Downtown Los Angeles.
The multi-phase project aims to ultimately bring 945 residential units, a 210-key hotel, 225,000-square feet of retail, a restaurant, and entertainment venues—including a 744-seat movie theater—to the neighborhood. The complex will also include 312,000-square feet of educational space meant to be occupied by one or multiple educational tenants. All of that program will be spread out across a 10-acre site populated by a series of low- and mid-rise blocks separated by outdoor spaces.
The project was originally announced in 2013 and is expected to cost between $500- and $1 billion to construct, depending on how the scope of the project evolves in response to market conditions. A Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) indicates that the project will contain a cluster of towers, the tallest of which potentially rising up to 38-stories in height. Renderings released for the project depict a collection of faceted, podium-style towers punctuated by diagonal window patterns. The towers overlook an elevated park that runs along a portion of the northern edge of the site.
The project, as designed, indicates that the ever-growing Downtown Los Angeles skyline is beginning to spread eastward along its southern edge into an area defined mostly by low-rise warehouse structures and parking lots. The project’s first phase—City Market South—according to a press release, is now complete and nearly 98% leased. The complex will host festivities next month when it acts as the site of the Los Angeles Design Festival.
