Location:  Los Angeles, California

In recognition of the westward movement of the downtown core, Los Angeles Center has been designed as a major new urban destination. The project represents a mixed-use commercial neighborhood comprising a total of 18 acres with nearly 6 acres dedicated to a “necklace” of public open space events.

This project involves the Master Plan and Architectural Design of a 12-acre site west of the Harbor Freeway and includes more than 5 million square feet of commercial development.

Two pedestrian axes were established, one connecting the western residential neighborhood to the downtown financial core, and another connecting areas north of the site to the retail district of downtown. These routes, and the decision to retain the privatized east-west streets as view corridors, reestablishes a grid-like subdivision of the site. The new and reduced “city-block” conforms to an ideal unit for individual developments, and establishes a scale and texture that can knit together large scale residential neighborhoods.