Last year, developer City Century announced plans for a skyline-altering tower complex in Downtown Los Angeles, just north of the L.A. Live campus. The project, known as Olympia, calls for the construction of three high-rise buildings on a 3.25-acre site bounded by Olympic Boulevard, Georgia Street, James M. Wood Boulevard and the Harbor Freeway. A new environmental report published by the Department of City Planning now offers up new details on the project.
According to the report, City Century is considering two development scenarios for the project. The first, as reported last year, would create up to 1,367 residential units and approximately 40,000 square feet of commercial uses at ground level. An alternative plan now would shrink the project's residential component to 879 units, and instead build 1,000 hotel rooms. Parking for both options would be provided within an above- and below-grade garage, with accommodations forup to 2,131 spaces. However, the latter alternative would require substantially fewer spaces due to its large hotel component.
The proposed design from architecture firm SOM and P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S maintains calls for substantial open space, both at the podum level and on terraces embedded into the side of the tower through offset floor plates. As with other freeway adjacent developments, such as Metropolis and L.A. Live, plans call for signage to adorn the lower levels of the buildings.
The three towers would rise to heights of 53 stories (653 feet), 43 stories (550 feet) and 65 stories (853 feet) running north-to-south down Georgia Street. The largest of the buildings would rank as the fourth tallest in Los Angeles, if built today.
According to the initial study, construction of Olympia would occur over approximately 48 months. The environmental analysis has been conducted with a scheduled opening date of 2023.
The project is among the largest of several high-rise developments rising in the Downtown area, following in the footsteps of Metropolis and Oceanwide Plaza.
City Century is also behind plans for dual residential towers on Grand Avenue in South Park.