After a couple of years of quiet, embattled development firm Relevant Group is retooling its plans for a site abutting the historic Morrison Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles.

Nearly one decade ago, the Hollywood-based company kicked off plans to fold the more than century-old hotel - made famous by the album cover of a 1970s album of the same name by The Doors - into a mixed-use project featuring 444 guest rooms, 136 condominiums. That project would have framed the four-story Morrison with new structures rising 15- and 25- stories in height.

View looking southeast from Hope StreetMVE + Partners

A new filing for the site at 1220 S. Hope Street, made on November 4, points to a scaled back vision for the property. The Morrison Hotel itself is no longer included in plans, having been sold last year to AIDS Healthcare Foundation for use as affordable housing. The land that remains to the site, including commercial buildings to the north on Hope Street and a parking lot to the rear fronting Pico Boulevard, are now expected to give way to an eight-story edifice featuring 531 studio apartments with approximately 7,165 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and parking for 109 vehicles.

Unlike the original plan, the revised proposal also incorporates affordable housing as part of density bonus incentives requested by Relevant Group. Plans call for 27 apartments to be set aside for rent by very low-income households.

View looking northwest from Pico BoulevardMVE + Partners

MVE + Partners is designing 1220 S. Hope Street, which is shown in plans with a contemporary exterior contemporary exterior, colored black and accented with brick and wood panels. Plans show multiple courtyards and a rooftop pool deck on the structure.

While its original focus was on hotels in Hollywood, Relevant Group has more recently shifted its focus to Downtown Los Angeles, where the company has proposed similar projects at two sites along Olive Street. However, Relevant's recent struggles have seen it lose its Thompson and Tommie hotels to lenders through foreclosure.

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