Hollywood-based developer Relevant Group has retooled its plans to revamp the historic Morrison Hotel as the centerpiece of mixed-use, high-rise complex.
The Morrison, built in 1914 at the intersection of Pico Boulevard and Hope Street, was made famous in the 1970s by The Doors, which used the four-story building as the cover art for its album Morrison Hotel.
Relevant Group, under a proposal which was first unveiled in 2016, is seeking to convert the longtime SRO apartment building back into a hotel. The more than century-old building, combined with 15-story, 190-foot-tall expansion on to an adjoining property, would include approximately 444 guest rooms.
The project, which is currently in the midst of its environmental review period, also calls for the construction of a high-rise residential tower on a neighboring property to the north. The 25-story, 325-foot-tall building would contain a total of 136 dwellings, as well as ground-floor retail and restaurant space.
The revised project, as presented on September 15 to the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council's Planning and Land Use Committee, is being designed by New York-based SHoP Architects - perhaps best known as the firm behind the Barclay Center arena in Brooklyn.
The redesign, which replaces a prior iteration by Steinberg Hart, calls for carving out a large courtyard at the center of the property's Hope Street frontage. Roughly 15,500 square feet of shops, restaurants, galleries, and museum space would wrap the landscaped space, while event space and amenities would be located above. Architectural plans also show that landscaped outdoor decks would be placed above the podium and roof levels of the new buildings.
Relevant is also planning to build 222 parking stalls within three subterranean levels beneath the new buildings.
KTGY Architecture + Planning is serving as architect of record for the project, which is slated to use prebricated modular construction.
Relevant Group's portfolio includes a slew of new hotel projects in Hollywood - including the under-construction Thompson and Tommie developments. The company is also behind plans to renovate Downtown's historic Hotel Barclay, as well as three proposed affordable housing projects in Westlake, Skid Row, and South Los Angeles.
- Morrison Hotel (Urbanize LA)