Progress report for Brookfield's Figat7th-adjacent apartment tower

Directly west of the Figat7th shopping mall in Downtown Los Angeles, a mixed-use apartment tower from Brookfield is starting to make its mark on the skyline.

Named for its location on a formerly empty site at 960 W. 7th Street, the project will consist of a slender glass-and-steel tower that will feature 784 studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments above an 831-car garage at completion.

Marmol Radziner is designing the tower, LARGE Architecture serving as executive architect, which stand 56 stories in height when viewed from the Figueroa and 7th Streets, and 64 stories from 8th Street. The building is approved to rise up to 695 feet above ground level.

The building will feature a setback above its podium level, creating space for an amenity deck, with additional open space planned for its rooftop. Plans also call for a small amount of commercial space adjacent to the tower's entrance on the upper level of the Figat7th terrace and on 8th Street.

In addition to housing, the project will also provide a new publicly-accessible staircase between 7th and 8th Streets, addressing a roughly 36-foot grade change across the property. The stairs will also provide a new pedestrian access point to Figat7th.

Completion of the tower remains on pace to occur in 2022.

When announced in 2017, the project was billed as the final component of a master-planned development first conceived in the 1980 by the late developer Robert Maguire, who built the mall now known as Figat7th as well as the neighboring 777 Figueroa and EY Center office towers. Maguire had planned more offices at the 960 W. 7th Street site as recently as 2006.

Broookfield, which is the largest office landlord in the Downtown market, is also planning to construct a 34-story residential building adjacent to Bank of America Plaza, and recently signed Adidas and Forever 21 as office tenants at the revamped California Market Center in the Fashion District.

Other investors are also planning high-rise buildings in the neighborhood surrounding Figat7th.  Across the street, Mitsui Fudosan America is in construction for a similar 42-story apartment tower.

• 960 W 7th Street (Urbanize LA)