If you want the green light to get something built in this town, you could do worse than hiring a guy named Frank Gehry to put your dream on the drafting table.

Real estate developer Related Companies went back to the drawing board with architecture star Gehry to come up with plans for a three-acre project downtown that will include shops, restaurants and two towers for a hotel and residences.

And it would all be across the street from …

… Gehry's landmark L.A. work, Disney Hall.

Talk about complementary. The project is part of the stalled, commercial side of Grand Avenue's development. Grand Park opened last year, but the street life promised by adjacent storefronts has yet to materialized.

Related Companies wants to help make that happen with this $650 million development on Grand Avenue between First and Second streets downtown.

The firm's first plans, designed by Gensler and Robert A.M. Stern Architects, were rejected by the Los Angeles Grand Avenue Authority, which owns the property being developed.

Related says in a statement that the Gehry version fixes things:

Inviting public spaces and pedestrian connections span the site and provide easy access to nearby architectural icons — Disney Hall, Cathedral of Our Lady of The Angels and The Broad — as well as to the Regional Connector and Metro Red Line subway stops and Grand Park, the highly popular neighboring park financed and built by Related.


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The planned hotel at First and Grand would have 300 rooms, the firm says. The tower on Second would include “a mix of market rate and affordable apartments and condominiums” with “rooftop pavilions and terraces throughout.”

Gehry himself says:

What's been missing is the excitement and fun of a hotel, nightclubs, restaurants, shops, places to hang out. Now our plan has the potential of becoming an incredibly dynamic partner to the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the other arts and cultural institutions on Grand Avenue.

Build it already.

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