Architectural Shockers To Be Built In Downtown Los Angeles!

It takes a lot to shock my poor dopamine-deprived brain into blogger action these days - but tonight - after returning from a blogger/journalist /panel/party hosted by LA Times Editorial writer (three words I never thought would be appearing before his name) - Matt Welch at the LA Press Club - and including Kevin Roderick - a post by Kevin at LAOBSERVED linking to my good buddy Eric Richardson over at blogdowntown - just put me into full dopamine overload.

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2006/04/afternoon_snack_5.html

http://blogdowntown.com/blog/2189

Two posts on the skyscraperpage forums point to website for Robertson Partners, where they talk about plans to build two residential / mixed-use towers Downtown -- one 50 stories (The Olympic) and the other 60 (The City House). Nothing listed for location, but this email reply one poster received strongly suggests South Park:

We have two buildings that will be announced in the Los Angeles Times sometime around April 23, in just the next few weeks. The City House is 60 stories and the Olympic is 50 stories. The buildings are funded and will be built. The construction will start in about a year. The sales office is being set up at the corner of Flower and Olympic. The sales office, which will have everything about the buildings, will be ready in January or February of 2007.

What neither blogger mentions, though, is that both of the buildings shown on the 'architect's' site - are semi-blown 1920's beaux-arts styled buildings with smallish windows cut into the the (presumably faux) stone walls. In other words, you will only be seeing about the half of the view you will be paying for.

And even though the two high rise buildings shown on the architect's site are subdued to the point of being boring, the interiors and the single family homes shown on the site are seriously scary examples Dallas/Houston 1980's nouveau-riche at its most gauche.

Hopefully, in the morning, this will all turn out to be just a bad dream - just like in the TV series Dallas.