The City of Los Angeles has announced its shortlist for a $700m public-private partnership scheme to build a civic centre on the site of the city’s former police headquarters.
The new tower is part of a programme of works to revamp LA’s historic city centre. This includes the Civic Centre Masterplan, drawn up by consultant IBI Group, which would add a total of more than 100,000 sq m of office space to the area, and roughly the same amount of housing.
The masterplan’s aim is to "provide a contemporary spin on the traditional European square", thereby transforming the area from an office-only environment to a residential quarter with leisure amenities, shops and parks.
The three consortiums were selected from five respondents to a request for qualifications issued by the city government in April. The three are:
- DTLA Civic Partners Made up of French investor Meridiam DTLA Civic, US contractors Edgemoor Infrastructure and Clark Construction, Chicago-based architect Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, and French environmental consultant Engie Services
- LAC3 Partners Comprising Australian PPP investor Macquarie Financial Holdings, US asset management firm JLC Infrastructure, Colorado-based contractor Hensel Phelps Construction, LA-based designer Morphosis Architects and Honeywell International
- Plenary Collaborative Los Angeles Australian-headquartered investor Plenary Group, San Francisco contractor Webcor Construction, US multidisciplinary consultant SmithGroup, Genoa-based Renzo Piano Building Workshop and Johnson Controls.
The winner will be responsible for the finance, design, construction and operation of a 70,000 sq m building of between 27 and 29 storeys with underground parking for 1,100 vehicles and a shopping centre in its podium.
The centre will be built on the site of the Parker Centre, the former LA Police Department headquarters, designed by modernist architect Welton Becket, and the origin of the expression "glass house". This was built in 1955 and has been vacant since 2013. The demolition was helped by a decision by the city council in 2017 to deny the building historic cultural monument status.
Image: IBI’s masterplan for the historic centre of LA
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