It's January 2026, which means we're officially entered the second half of the 2020s. Let's forget about how old we're getting for a minute and focus on ten stories we'll be watching in the year ahead, as well as what we saw come to pass int he year that was.
View looking northPopulous
Reviewing our list from this time in 2025, most of our expectations were fulfilled. Despite a growing budget and some last-minute panic, the Los Angeles Convention Center expansion was approved (and started construction!). The LAX/Metro Transit Center Station is open (more on its LAX connection later), and the A Line now reaches Pomona. Work is visibly progressing for the G Line Busway's upgrades, and a little less visibly for the Van Nuys light rail line. Finally, the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center completed physical construction this year (now comes the outfitting of exhibits on the inside), and the Culver City Planning Commission has signed off on multiple large-scale projects which are slated to reshape the Fox Hills neighborhood in the coming years.
On the other hand...despite high hopes, Brightline West has seen little forward progress while its price tag has nearly doubled in size (I guess it may not be that different from California's high-speed rail project after all!). The D Line subway extension did not see its first phase open in 2025 (more on that later), and plans to underground parking on the southern side of Exposition Park to add more green space above have been postponed until after the 2028 Olympics (which may be the right move, given the very tight timeline).
Purple Line extensionMetro
The initial phase of construction between Wilshire/Western Station in Koreatown and Wilshire/La Cienega Station in Beverly Hills is currently slated to make its debut by March 2026 (Metro's website states "Winter 2026" for what it's worth). That delay could mean that the debut of phases one and two both occur within 2026 -the completion of phase two to Century City (with an intermediate stop just off of Rodeo Drive) is anticipated by Spring 2026.
Aerial view looking northHunter Kerhart Architectural Photography
It took seven years, but there is finally a date on the calendar. The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, a $1-billion legacy project from legendary filmmaker George Lucas, is set to open on September 22, 2026 in Exposition Park. The 300,000-square-foot museum looks like a Star Wars prequel-era spaceship and includes new landscaped gardens that will add some greenery to a public park that has always been a little light on actual park space.
"A rendering of the Automated People Mover train as it passes over Century Boulevard."LAWA
This project may genuinely be cursed. Once slated to open in 2023, it has seen its debut date repeatedly pushed back, to the point where its completion is now expected in mid-2026 - just in time for the World Cup. Although somewhat ominously, Los Angeles World Airports is also making contingency plans for visitors if/when that does not come to pass. The project is accompanied by a massive consolidated rental car facility and two ground transportation hubs, as well as a connection to the aforementioned LAX/Metro Transit Center.
View looking west toward central terminal areaLAWA
Speaking of ground transportation at LAX, work commenced in 2024 for a previously little-known and now somewhat controversial effort to reorient automobile traffic into the airport's central terminal area. Plans call for roughly four miles of new roadway, requiring the relocation of LAX signage and the iconic pylon light sculpture that greets passersby. The roadway realignment is part of a larger project which also calls for the construction of new Terminal 9 and an expansion of Terminal 1, though those elements have been postponed in light of stagnant passenger traffic following the pandemic.
View looking northeast toward SoFi StadiumClayco / Matt McFarland
It won't be ready in time for the World Cup, but Inglewood's Kali Hotel is also slated to makes debut in late 2026 just steps from SoFi Stadium. The 12-story, 300-room hotel will be joined by a Fairfield hotel now under construction just south along Century Boulevard, which could in turn be followed by a pair of mid-rise hotel towers near Intuit Dome.
Aerial view looking southwestThe Boundary
The latest large project next to La Cienega/Jefferson Station, Lendlease's Habitat development, is wrapping up construction as we speak. The complex - the first L.A. project for Shop Architects - includes a 12-story, 260-unit apartment tower, accompanied by a 243,000-square-foot office building and commercial space. As always seems to be the case, more housing and commercial projects are set to follow at other sites near the elevated Metro stop.
Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing
Aerial view of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife CrossingRock Design Associates
A different type of infrastructure project, the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing is set for completion in 2026 above the US-101 Freeway in Agoura Hills. The project, named for the late philanthropist whose patronized so many institutions in the L.A. area, will allow mountain lions and other wildlife to safely cross a busy stretch of highway that bisects the Santa Susana and Santa Monica Mountains.
Armenian American Museum and Cultural Center of California
View from Colorado StreetArmenian American Museum
In Glendale Central Park, completion of the Armenian American Museum is set for completion in late 2026. The museum, which will have a permanent exhibition focused on the Armenian Genocide, has a unique steel exterior inspired by rock formations in the Armenian Highlands. The project will be followed by an expansion of Glendale Central Park, which will take out surface parking lot to replace land eaten up by the museum's footprint.
Areas potentially eligible for SB 79 in Los AngelesCity of Los Angeles
In mid-2026, SB 79 is set to take effect...well, at least in the areas where it may not take effect. The landmark housing bill includes several carve-outs, allowing its impacts to be felt across smaller areas in cities with lower populations (including jurisdictions in Central Los Angeles), and on sites that are vulnerable to climate change impacts, developed with historic properties, or located in designated "low resource areas." Los Angeles and Beverly Hills are leading the charge of local jurisdictions developing local alternative plans which could change how the bill is implemented.
The Downtown Los Angeles skylineHunter Kerhart Architectural Photography
After a couple years of complaints backed up by academic studies and unfavorable data regarding the city's pace of housing production, state lawmakers were poised last year to overhaul the so-called "mansion" tax imposed by Measure ULA on all real estate transactions in the City of Los Angeles of $5.3 million or more...or, they were for the blink of an eye. Within a day of announcing SB 423 last year, Mayor Karen Bass and allied legislators in Sacramento pulled it from consideration to make technical corrections and vowed to try again in January. The bill, as previously conceived, would reduce taxes imposed on sellers of apartment buildings, offices, and shopping centers built within the past 15 years.
At the same time, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which never misses an opportunity to swing for the fences, is gathering signatures for a ballot measure which would simultaneously repeal Measure ULA, require a 2/3 supermajority vote for the approval of any local tax measure, and impose new limits on transfer taxes statewide. The League of California Cities has estimated that cities would lose upwards of $3 billion each year, should the measure pass.
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