Wilshire Grand

TUESDAY, JUNE 27, 2017 WILSHIRE GRAND HIGH EXPECTATIONS FINISHING TOUCHES A RIVER OF GLASS SEISMICALLY CHIC L.A. now has a new tallest building. In the design of the tower’s interior, How the project’s signature One of the tallest buildings in an How will it fit into the fabric any detail out of place could skylight, inspired by the Yosemite earthquake hot zone had to balance of the city? PAGE 2 spoil the effect. PAGE 6 Valley, was saved. PAGE 18 safety and style. PAGE 20 Mel Melcon Los Angeles Times S2 TUESDAY, JUNE 27, 2017 LATIMES.COM WILSHIRE GRAND HOW WILL L.A.’S NEWEST HIGH-RISE FIT INTO AN EVOLVING CITY? By Thomas Curwen tanding at the base of the Wilshire statement that speaks more to the egos of a few perspective seems oddly miniaturized. Grand, architect David Martin than the needs of the many. But as he stepped onto the terrace on the 73rd shielded his eyes to take in the scope But this is what cities do, no matter the ex- floor, Martin turned to study the steel-and-glass of Los Angeles’ newest and tallest pense or impracticality. From a distance, these sail — a technical achievement rising an addi- skyscraper. structures declare their prowess and modernity tional 300 feet above him. Eight years ago, this shimmering by lifting themselves above the horizon like Oz, A skyscraper, Martin said, is often boring: a big glass tower began its life in his proxies in glass for ambition and power. From the box designed for utilitarian, commercial purposes S sketchbook as an ink drawing and a sidewalk, they inspire passers-by to peer skyward, with design subservient to the cost and speed of splash of blue wash. Now, after four a remarkable feat when daily occupations compel construction. years of construction and $1.35 billion, it is debut- many to look only ahead. Pushing against those pressures is part of the ing on the city’s stage. Guests have begun to ar- And in Los Angeles — not New York, not Chi- architect’s job. rive; tenants come later in the year. cago — the raising of these buildings is all the more And Martin counts the sail and the adjoining The prospect leaves Martin a little nervous. remarkable in a region where downtown is a mere spire as one of his successes, an elaborate and The expectations for this building are high. island in a vast suburban sea. costly artifice, a hood ornament by any other For all its 21st century detailing, the Wilshire Conceived during the height of the recession as name. Grand is a throwback to a time when Los Angeles two towers — one a hotel and one an office — the As he climbed the stairs into the sail — which dared to dream tall and for three decades — the Wilshire Grand eventually was consolidated into will be closed to the public — he was surrounded early ’60s to the early ’90s — saw a fledgling skyline one, driving the height to 73 stories. by wide-flange beams, up to 44-feet in length, emerge above Bunker Hill, Century City and West- Given its complexity, architect Michael crisscrossing around him like a cat’s cradle. wood. Maltzan, whose projects include the apartment “It’s like a ship,” he said, proud that this ele- But such aspirations can be fickle. That boom, complex One Santa Fe and the new 6th Street ment withstood the months of debates and dis- financed in part by Japanese capital, stalled amid Bridge, wants to wait before passing judgment. agreement. an economic recession. Now 30 years later, this “The ability to measure its impact is compli- But he knows that even monumental design is new tower rides a new wave of development rip- cated by time,” he said. “A tower, a building of that never fixed in time. pling through downtown and outlying communi- scale, functions at so many different scales, each of Just blocks away is the City National Plaza, ties such as Hollywood and mid-Wilshire. which is measured in different time frames, so it is with its twin towers. Driven by Chinese and Korean investors, this hard to say from Day One if it is a success or not.” Designed in the1960s by Martin’s father, Albert prosperity reflects not only a shift in the world He cited a few object lessons: The Eiffel Tower C. Martin, these 52-story buildings — the Arco economic order but also a renewed faith in Los An- and San Francisco’s Transamerica Pyramid were Towers — have long been honored as a model of geles’ potential on the edge of the Pacific Rim. (In mocked at their debuts and today are beloved Corporate-International style, austere in their 2015, South Korea was Los Angeles’ No. 3 trading icons. The U.S. Bank Tower, completed in 1989 a smoked glass, dignified in their identical pairing. partner, with two-way trade totaling $23.7 billion.) few blocks away from the Wilshire Grand, also re- Yet last year the owners modified the top story When Korean Air, owner of the Wilshire Grand, ceived mixed reviews. One critic overlooked the of the north tower, changing the color of the glass, lighted the building’s crown with the red, blue and design of what was then the city’s tallest structure, adding a ribbon of silver-white around it. white swirl of its logo, it captured that historical focusing instead on its “dizzying, seven-year exer- Spoiling the symmetry. sweep. The airline’s chairman, Yang Ho Cho, first cise in deal-making.” visited downtown Los Angeles on his honeymoon Some question whether the Wilshire Grand de- d in1974 and was told to be careful if he went out after serves iconic status. Its claim over the U.S. Bank dark. Tower, they say, is a cheat, based on a spire that As the afternoon waned, traffic on the 10 Free- Today he expresses the hope that this building gives it an 82-foot advantage. way was a ribbon of cars, creeping in and out of will be an icon for the city as well as a symbol of And if spires count, they add, then what about downtown, bumper to bumper. pride for its Korean community. a 1,215-foot smelter smokestack in Magna, Utah? For all the best intentions and design, the fu- But on a late May afternoon, Martin wasn’t tak- Yet part-building, part-spire, the Wilshire ture of the Wilshire Grand is linked to the city. ing a global perspective. Wandering out onto the Grand already has shifted Los Angeles’ concep- Sprawl — awesome by day and sparkling at pool deck overlooking 7th Street, his concerns tion of what its skyline can be — no longer the flat- night — is one thing, but gridlock, no matter the were more immediate. The amplified strains of a topped relics of an era that privileged helipads hour, is another. violinist drifted from a distant sidewalk. over ornamentation. For Thom Mayne, one of the city’s preeminent The Wilshire Grand has represented for him a For architect Eric Owen Moss, however, any architects, the success of the Wilshire Grand de- lifetime opportunity to build a downtown land- discussion of merit based on height is antiquated. pends on how the city rises up to meet it. mark, much as his grandfather did with City Hall Moss, former director of the Southern California Looking at the future, Mayne, the executive di- and his father with such high-rises as the Depart- Institute of Architecture, recently designed a 17- rector of the UCLA Now Institute, believes that ment of Water and Power and the Arco Towers. story tower near the La Cienega-Jefferson light Los Angeles’ greatest challenge is an anticipated He spoke of the building’s parametric sloping, rail station. population increase of 1.5 million by 2050. its reflectivity, the alignments between the indoor “I’m sure it matters to the developer, but I’m He argues for the increased densification of the and outdoor spaces and the overhead “bones,” the not sure if it matters to the city or to the communi- Wilshire Corridor, 15 miles from downtown to seismic supports — and he anticipated the critics. ty downtown at all,” he said. Santa Monica, soon accessible by subway. What does the Wilshire Grand offer the city, More interesting to Moss is whether or not the To this end the Wilshire Grand, he said, is “use- they will ask. Is it for the wealthy and privileged? Wilshire Grand offers a new understanding of ful,” but he added, “it is one single building. Does it advance the science of engineering or a what a tower can be. He wondered how the build- “What’s important is for it to be followed by theory of architecture? ing will interact with the street or if it will advance housing.” “I hope they all like the building,” he said. a new conception of the city. Without that step, the skyscraper “is just an- “You get to be the biggest building if you dem- other random building with no broader connectiv- d onstrate you have the biggest or most substantial ity, no synergy, no relationship to some broader content,” he said. strategy of how the city is going to grow and what Every tall building is a unique performance, a that means to its citizens — again on human blend of grand effects and minute detail. Some d terms, on social terms, on cultural terms.” strike a single note. Others try for a deeper, almost The city of Los Angeles, he said, must take the symphonic complexity.

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