Glass exterior climbs at 8th & Figueroa in DTLA

At the intersection of 8th and Figueroa Streets in Downtown Los Angeles, the glass skin of a new high-rise apartment tower Mitsui Fudosan America is beginning to take shape.

Located on the longtime site of a surface parking lot, the finished product will consist of a 42-story building featuring 438 studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments above podium parking and approximately 7,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space.

Johnson Fain is designing the concrete high rise, which will stand approximately 530 feet in height and feature LEDs within its glass facade. Unlike most recent Downtown towers, the building's above-grade parking garage will be wrapped in same type of glass wrapping the trunk of the tower - a condition of approval imposed by the Los Angeles City Planning Commission.

In addition to housing, plans call for a swimming pool and amenity deck above the tower's podium, as well as a second outdoor deck at the roof level.

At the time of its groundbreaking in mid-2020, completion of the 8th and Figueroa tower was expected within three years. Off-site improvements associated with the project would be implemented at that time, including a new mid-block crosswalk feeding into Figat7th. 

Brookfield, which owns Figat7th, is in the midst of construction of Beaudry, another apartment tower just west of the Mitsui Fudosan site.

Mitsui Fudosan America, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Mitsui Fudosan, has owned the land at 8th and Figueroa since the 1980s, and once considered developing the property with an office tower.  After that 1990s proposal fell through, the site remained a parking lot for nearly 30 years until plans for the residential development were initiated in 2016.  

In addition to the Figueroa Street property, Mitsui Fudosan America also owns a second property two blocks east at 8th and Hope Streets, where the company expects to break ground on a similar apartment tower in the near future.

• 732 S Figueroa Street (Urbanize LA)