After nearly one year of construction, developer UDR, Inc.'s latest tower on Wilshire Boulevard is now well above ground level.

The 18-story, 255-foot tower, rising at the corner of Wilshire and Crescent Heights Boulevard, will feature 158 one- and two-bedroom dwellings above 6,850 square feet of retail space and parking for 423 vehicles.  Plans also call for an on-site fitness center, a swimming pool and a rooftop garden.

Steinberg Architects is designing the mixed-use development, which will create a small pocket park on a narrow strip of land north of the tower.

A similar high-rise complex is planned a short distance west at Wilshire and La Jolla Avenue, while the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences' new museum takes shape at the LACMA campus to the east.

These projects will all sit within walking distance of the new Wilshire/Fairfax Station, which is being constructed through the Purple Line Extension.