Tomorrow, the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council's Planning and Land Use Committee will review a proposal to build a mid-rise office building in the Arts District.

The project, which is being developed by Los Angeles-based real estatate firm Lowe Enterprises, would rise from an approximately .75-acre site at 2130 E. Violet Avenue.  Plans call for a nine-story building which would feature 90,700 square feet of office space, 6,100 square feet of ground-floor retail and a 274-car garage.

Humphreys & Partners Architects, the Dallas-based firm leading the design team, intends for the 108-foot tall building to "evoke the repurposed industrial concept" seen throughout the Arts District.  The building's ground floor would be clad with storefront glass, while above-grade parking levels would be disguised with murals.  The office space on the upper levels of the building would feature a grid of concrete columns, a patterned window system and balconies with metal cable railings.

The subject property, like much of Violet Avenue, is currently developed for industrial purposes without sidewalks, landscaping or active ground-floor uses.  Lowe Enterprises intends to change that, building on the environment created by other nearby projects such as the Shorenstein Company's renovation of the Arts District's historic Ford Factory.

Construction of the proposed office building is contingent on a series of discretionary approvals from the City of Los Angeles.  A timeline for the project is currently unclear.