It looks like the Colburn School isn't quite done with acquiring property on Bunker Hill.
Last year, the performing arts academy announced plans for a 200,000-square-foot expansion on a property bounded by Olive, Hill, and 2nd Streets. The project, to be designed by Frank Gehry, will feature a 1,100-seat concer hall, a 700-seat studio theater, office space, and other facilities.
Now, according to a memo to the CRA/LA Oversight Committee, the Colburn School intends to purchase 4,800-square-foot parking lot at the opposite corner of 2nd and Olive Streets in order to fold the property into its expansion plans. The school envisions vacating the airspace above the site to reuse it as open space for its campus, which also includes a music conservatory at the corner of 1st Street and Grand Avenue.
The sales price of the parking lot is listed as $100,000.
The Colburn School's expansion will follow the construction of another Gehry-designed project - The Grand. The $1-billion mixed-use complex, which officially broke ground earlier this year, will consist of two towers containing housing, an Equinox hotel, and a variety of shops and restaurants.
The proposed plaza at 2nd and Olive would not be the first time underutilized space above a public street on Bunker Hill has been reused in this fashion. A block north, a 24,000-square-foot pocket park was built on a concrete deck above Gen. Thaddeus Kosciuszko Way. The space connects the Emerson apartment tower to The Broad contemporary art museum, and will eventually offer a direct link to a light rail subway station now under construction at 2nd and Hope Streets.
