A Look at the Future of Spring Street

LOS ANGELES—North America Sekisui House and Holland Partner Group has broker ground on 732 Spring Street, a $164 million mixed-use development on Spring Street in Downtown Los Angeles. This is the second of tower in the two-tower project. The first, 755 Spring Street, broke ground late last year. MVE Partners is designing the future icon to illuminate both the historic past of the Downtown Los Angeles market as well as the future of the evolving street.

“This is a great opportunity,” Matthew McLarand, principal at MVE + Partners, tells GlobeSt.com. “Part of what is beautiful about the historic core is that there was already this great precedent. There are elements of architecture that really tie into the scale of pedestrians and walkability, and all of the things that we talk so much about wanting to have. That street has all of that in a really authentic way. It isn't someone coming in and trying to recreate the past; it is a framework that was designed years ago. The architectural character of buildings is always important but the way that you design buildings that relates to real people and creates real character.”

The 24-story tower will have 300 apartment units and 7,500 square feet of retail space on the ground floor, with a full luxury amenity package that is now standard of mixed-use developments in the area, making the design all the more important to the project. “This is the first building that we have had the opportunity to work on with Holland, and they brought us into the project to come in and help with the vision of doing a high-rise building that fit the vernacular of the historic core,” adds McLarand. “They didn't want to have anything too contemporary or avant-garde.”

In addition to looking to the growth on Spring Street, which has seen ample development, MVE + Partners also looked to the nearby Broadway revitalization—known as bringing back Broadway—for inspiration. “The building also ties into Broadway, which is the street right next to Spring Street,” says McLarand. “Broadway has all of these beautiful historic theaters and there are all of these visions of ultimately restoring to help make Broadway a thriving retail and theater street.” The property will have a stone, metal and glass exterior.

However, the project wasn't without its challenges. The sale agreement for the development required that the property provide parking to several adjacent buildings, which are also owned by the seller. “The question became: how do you do a building like this that fit into the Downtown design guideline and that could also handle appropriate resolutions to Spring Street parking,” says McLarand. “These buildings not only needed to support themselves but also adjacent uses.”

While this was a challenge for the design team to accommodate the parking requirements, McLarand thinks that parking should be included in the Spring Street projects, which he says will need to accommodate people from outside the downtown market coming to shop or go to the theater. “Within these purchases and these new projects that are emerging,” he says. “While there is a growing infrastructure of mass transit in L.A., which is really important, there are still a lot of people that use a car and it is important to fill that demand as well.”

LOS ANGELES—North America Sekisui House and Holland Partner Group has broker ground on 732 Spring Street, a $164 million mixed-use development on Spring Street in Downtown Los Angeles. This is the second of tower in the two-tower project. The first, 755 Spring Street, broke ground late last year. MVE Partners is designing the future icon to illuminate both the historic past of the Downtown Los Angeles market as well as the future of the evolving street.

“This is a great opportunity,” Matthew McLarand, principal at MVE + Partners, tells GlobeSt.com. “Part of what is beautiful about the historic core is that there was already this great precedent. There are elements of architecture that really tie into the scale of pedestrians and walkability, and all of the things that we talk so much about wanting to have. That street has all of that in a really authentic way. It isn't someone coming in and trying to recreate the past; it is a framework that was designed years ago. The architectural character of buildings is always important but the way that you design buildings that relates to real people and creates real character.”

The 24-story tower will have 300 apartment units and 7,500 square feet of retail space on the ground floor, with a full luxury amenity package that is now standard of mixed-use developments in the area, making the design all the more important to the project. “This is the first building that we have had the opportunity to work on with Holland, and they brought us into the project to come in and help with the vision of doing a high-rise building that fit the vernacular of the historic core,” adds McLarand. “They didn't want to have anything too contemporary or avant-garde.”

In addition to looking to the growth on Spring Street, which has seen ample development, MVE + Partners also looked to the nearby Broadway revitalization—known as bringing back Broadway—for inspiration. “The building also ties into Broadway, which is the street right next to Spring Street,” says McLarand. “Broadway has all of these beautiful historic theaters and there are all of these visions of ultimately restoring to help make Broadway a thriving retail and theater street.” The property will have a stone, metal and glass exterior.

However, the project wasn't without its challenges. The sale agreement for the development required that the property provide parking to several adjacent buildings, which are also owned by the seller. “The question became: how do you do a building like this that fit into the Downtown design guideline and that could also handle appropriate resolutions to Spring Street parking,” says McLarand. “These buildings not only needed to support themselves but also adjacent uses.”

While this was a challenge for the design team to accommodate the parking requirements, McLarand thinks that parking should be included in the Spring Street projects, which he says will need to accommodate people from outside the downtown market coming to shop or go to the theater. “Within these purchases and these new projects that are emerging,” he says. “While there is a growing infrastructure of mass transit in L.A., which is really important, there are still a lot of people that use a car and it is important to fill that demand as well.”