More than a decade ago, Brookfield Properties initiated a $40-million makeover of the Seventh and Figueroa retail center - better known now as Figat7th. The renovation of the sunken shopping mall brought a slew of new tenants to Downtown's Financial District, including Target, H&M and Zara on its upper levels, as well as a slew of new eateries in the food court below.

While the redevelopment of the mall can hardly be said to have kickstarted the building boom that the surrounding blocks have undergone in the years since, they help to underscore some of the changes in Downtown's high-rise hub.

The before image, taken in 2017 by Hunter Kerhart, shows construction in full-swing at Metropolis - the four-tower high-rise complex next to the 110 Freeway which was first conceived of during the Reagan administration. The block-spanning development, built in the fleeting wave of Chinese investment which washed over Downtown in the 2010s, has brought about roughly 1,500 apartments and condos, a 350-room Hotel Indigo, and a lot of underused retail space.

Six years and one pandemic later, a second image by Kerhart shows Metropolis partially obscured by a more recent arrival: Brookfield's 785-unit Beaudry apartment tower, which filled in a long-empty plot of land at the rear of Figat7th. The more than 50-story building, which began opening for residents this year, is one of the first large-scale developments to debut since March of 2020.

Another pending opening in the Financial District, Mitsui Fudosan America's 42-story 8th & Figueroa apartment tower, is also under construction to the rear of the camera.

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