New Billion-Dollar Project Proposed For Los Angeles

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Apr 3rd 2009 at 7:02PM

Downtown Los Angeles got a big boost this week with a proposal for a $1-billion hotel, office and retail project. The project from Korean Air is being developed by Thomas Properties Group. The two skyscrapers would replace the Wilshire Grand hotel and adjoining offices being used by Korean Air. The project would be the first time a South Korean developer has created a project this large in the U.S.

Los Angeles architect David Martin, a principal at AC Martin Partners, designed the towers which may have a photovoltaic skin to create solar power. One tower will host a 40-story hotel with as many as 700 rooms and several floors of condominiums. The other taller tower will be a 60-story building offering over a million square feet of office space and a plaza and shops on the ground level. What's really amazing is that this would be the first major high-rise office building constructed in Los Angeles since 1992. Los Angeles needs a new skyscraper about as much as it needs an NFL team of its own (could be a lot or not at all depending on who you ask).

The project still has to win city approval but if it does construction could begin in 2011 and be finished in 2014.

Tags: development, korean air, KoreanAir, los angeles, LosAngeles, skyscraper, south korea, SouthKorea