Vision of Monumental Boulevard Gets Off to Fitful Start

0

Vision of Monumental Boulevard Gets Off to Fitful Start

By DANNY KING

Staff Reporter

The northern reach of downtown’s Grand Avenue can boast several popular landmarks: the Music Center, MOCA (the Museum of Contemporary Art), and the Colburn School of Music, for openers. Come fall there will be the first service in the Raphael Moneo-designed Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Next year will be the first performance in the Frank Gehry-designed Disney Concert Hall.

But for all those cultural landmarks not to mention the Millennium Biltmore Hotel and the Central Library down the block Grand Avenue still has no there, there. No sidewalk cafes, no bookstores, no boutiques, no public space to grab a hot dog and lay on the grass.

Instead, directly across from the dramatic 293,000-square-foot Disney Hall, with its breathtaking steel frame and swooping rooflines, there is a county-owned parking structure. An ugly one at that. Directly across from the Music Center is another parking lot entrance. And aside from a few bewildered looking tourists, scarcely anyone on the street after dark or on the weekends.

“It strikes us as obvious that if you’re going to have a street with major international cultural icons, you need a truly grand avenue,” said Carol Schatz, president of the Central City Association. “Grand Avenue should become a cultural Champs Elysees.”

Another new plan

Maybe it’s finally on the right track. After years of one scuttled idea after another, a committee of elected officials and private interests are trying to finalize details of a plan to create a pedestrian-friendly Grand Avenue that would become both a commercial and cultural destination point.

The area of focus includes the nearly one-mile stretch of Grand from Cesar Chavez Avenue to 5th Street, as well as the 16-acre group of parcels bordered by the Music Center to the west and City Hall to the east.

Highlights of the most recent plan, which have not yet been made public, include the following:

– A Boston Commons-type park extending from the east side of Grand Avenue between Temple and 1st Streets to the foot of City Hall. This could include an amphitheater for concerts and small-scale amenities like tables, chairs and concession stands.

– Development of the two city-owned parking lots on the below-grade portion of Grand Avenue just south of the Disney Concert Hall into a mixed-use retail and residential complex.

– The conversion of the two parking lots between Disney Hall to the west and the Junipero Serra State Building to the east into more mixed use developments, which could include hotels, offices and retail.

– The redesign and probable widening of Grand Avenue’s sidewalks to both accommodate and encourage increased pedestrian use. This would feature kiosks along Grand and outdoor cafes next to existing structures like the Colburn School and MOCA.

“A lot of those buildings have really stark walls,” said Martha Welborne, managing director of the Grand Avenue Committee and former managing director of the L.A. office of architecture firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill. “We’re going to figure out a way of making them more inviting.”

Welborne, who helped develop the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Metro Rapid bus line, is working with an influential group that includes philanthropist Eli Broad, California first lady Sharon Davis, County Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen, Thomas Properties Chief Executive Jim Thomas and Music Center President Joanne Kozberg.

‘I’m working as hard as I can’

The committee, which has met periodically every few months, had been expected to finalize its proposal at the end of last year, and at this point, there is no timetable for when the plan will be completed.

Asked about the delay, Welborne laughed and said, “I’m working as hard as I can. You create a vision that costs more than anyone would ever want to spend and then you break it down into bite-sized chunks. That’s the challenge.”

Plus, there are lots of people to please. Besides the county, city and state, all of which have a stake in and around Grand Avenue, the committee must find a private developer willing to invest hundreds of millions of dollars on the bet that car-dependent Angelenos will be willing to stroll along what’s now an often desolate thoroughfare.

The final tab will run at least $1 billion, $300 million of which is expected to come from public funds and $700 million from developers and other private entities.

Broad, who says he has wanted to revive Grand Avenue for more than two decades, acknowledges that nothing will happen overnight, especially with attention at City Hall focused on the secession effort in the San Fernando Valley, not on another downtown development effort. Still, he believes that the climate has changed.

“Downtown has become a more desirable place to live,” Broad said, pointing to the increased numbers of downtown residents. “A lot is happening now that wasn’t happening before.”

Jonathan Kevles, director of L.A.’s Business Team, added that while the city has yet to commit funds for the project, “we’re really pleased with the vision that they’ve laid out.”

But with the vision comes the sobering reality of getting all parties involved in the public-private partnership of the Grand Avenue Committee to agree upon the same idea.

The Commons plan alone underscores the challenge. Within the boundaries of the project lies the county-owned Music Center, Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, Courthouse and parking complex near the Court of Flags as well as the state-run Criminal Courthouse and the city-operated City Hall to the east.

Outside the Commons area, the two parking lots south of Disney Hall are owned by the city, and would need a developer willing to build a property with entrances on both upper and lower Grand.

“You’ve got five county supervisors and a mayor who does not exactly have the powers of a Richard Daley in Chicago or a Mike Bloomberg in New York,” said Broad. “And you’ve got 15 council people which believe they have their own city. So it’s a combination (of challenges).”

Changing resources

Public money for the project is especially tight these days. The committee, which may have been able to depend on city and state surpluses a few years ago, now most look to possible bond issues for public funding, a daunting task acknowledged by the principals themselves.

“When I started, there was a state surplus and the government had a goal to create parks and public infrastructure,” said Welborne. “Now, there’s a huge state deficit. The amount of resources has changed a lot.”

Even relatively small hurdles can get complicated. Consider the several million-dollar plan for improving accessibility to the Music Center, as well as widening the sidewalk to account for the increased pedestrians in time for Disney Hall’s opening next fall.

Approval is needed by the county (which owns the Music Center and the land under Disney Hall), the city (which would pay for the sidewalk adjustment), the city’s Department of Transportation (which would survey the effect of the changing width of Grand Avenue), and the operators of Otto’s restaurant, which sits at the foot of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

The task before the Grand Avenue Committee is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that the concept now envisioned would actually incorporate aspects of three prior plans for the area none of which ever saw the light of day.

The 10-Minute Diamond, which was designed to encompass the 10-minute walking area around City Hall in the mid-90s, is being integrated into the Commons project.

The CRA-Sponsored plan of 1999 used Barcelona’s Las Ramblas as a model for the flower shops, magazine racks and cafes proposed for the three-block span of Grand Avenue south of the Music Center.

The Performing Arts Center plan, hatched the same year, involved putting more restaurants at the base of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and further defining the axis between the music center and the existing park between the two county buildings across the street.

Will anything come of this latest plan? Much will depend on the willingness by the city and county to redevelop the parcels they now own on Grand, which are being used for parking lots. “The city is very eager to get its parcels developed,” said Kevles, noting that the properties would be sold to a developer within the parameters of the plan. As for the county, there would have to be a new facility for all that parking space being taken out perhaps under the proposed Commons area.

“There are so many players involved,” Welborne said. “It’s sort of like tasting a soup that’s half-finished.”

No posts to display