Back in July, the Los Angeles Times announced that Downtown's long awaited Federal Courthouse had finally broken ground.  The 10-story edifice, designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM), will rise from the corner of 1st and Broadway.  SOM and Clark Construction want to make sure that everyone can see the $400 million project under construction, so they installed a webcam across the street.  There's not much to see yet, but the lot will eventually be home to 24 courtrooms and 32 judge's chambers.  Completion is scheduled for 2016.


The Federal Courthouse is just one of several projects seeking to reinvent the Civic Center.  On the opposite side of 1st Street, the LA Downtown News reports that the city recently purchased a long vacant parcel from the State of California, with the intention of converting it into park space.  According to the LA Times, the General Services Administration has plans to trade the existing Spring Street Courthouse to a developer who would, in exchange, build an Federal office building next-door to the new courthouse.  Finally, the perpetually stalled Grand Avenue Project is intended to rise on the parking lots to the west of the new courthouse.  However, that project was recently dealt yet another setback, when the Grand Avenue Authority unanimously rejected developer Related California's revised plans.