The environmental review period for the $1-billion Hollywood Center development has kicked off, and an initial report for the project offers up new details on what's to come.
The proposed mixed-use complex, slated for 4.5 acres of surface parking that wraps the iconic Capitol Records Building, would consist of four new buildings containing a total of 1,005 residential units - including 133 apartments to be set aside for extremely-low- and very-low-income seniors. According to developer MP Los Angeles, this figure represents the largest number of senior affordable units to be created by any market-rate development in Los Angeles.
Plans call for a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom dwellings, in addition to approximately 30,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant uses and parking for 1,521 vehicles on four basement levels. The initial study also analyzes the possibility of cutting 104 of the market rate units from the project to substitute a 220-room hotel.
Handel Architects is designing the mix of high-rise and low-rise buildings, which would be highlighted by a 46-story, 595-foot tower to the east of Vine Street and a 35-story, 469-foot tower to the west of Vine. Both the east and west halves of the project would also see the construction of 11-story buildings - one with market-rate apartments and the other with senior affordable units. Those buildings would rise to maximum heights of 158 and 149 feet, respectively.
The design team also includes landscape architecture firm James Corner Field Operations, best known for designing New York's famed High Line. Their work at the Hollywood Center development includes multiple a proposed 10,000-square-foot plaza adjacent to the "Hollywood Jazz" mural next to Capitol Records, as well as a series of roof- and podium-level amenity decks for the proposed buildings.
Although an official groundbreaking date for the project has not been set, the project's environmental report anticipates a two-phase build out over a period of six years. Construction at the west site could begin as early as 2021, and on the east side in approximately 2024.
The project is being designed to achieve LEED Gold Certification, and for the State of California's ELDP program which speeds environmental lawsuits for projects budgeted at $100 million or more.
Though the largest of the bunch, the Hollywood Center project is not the only high-rise complex planned around the Capitol Records Building. Hotel and apartment towers have already been completed at two corners of Yucca Street and Argyle Avenue, and a 20-story mixed-use building is planned at the same intersection.
