The Los Angeles Mall, which is located at the corner of Figueroa and 7th street, has been rotting away for several years. It has been showing its age for some time and has lost many of its tenants. However, an article in today’s L.A. Times announced that a 40 million dollar makeover has gone underway. Gensler Company, the same architecture firm that designed Nokia Live, will head the project.
Construction is expected to take just under two years— I think this is unlikely. Developers plan to make the retail center more accessible to people flooding the busy sidewalks surrounding the site. The outcome will be similar to that of the Americana, where there are several openings into the surrounding area outside the mall. One of the main anchor tenants will be a Target Super Store located in the center of the mall. Many young and trendy retail stores are also expected to move in. The planned mall will also offer visitors a 500-seat indoor-outdoor dining center with 15 restaurants. This mall’s approach to controlling the flow of customers is also radical. Unlike other malls that force visitors to walk by as many stores as possible to reach their destination, the new- and- improved L.A. Mall will be easy to navigate and wont force people to walk a lot just to shop at a single store. In my mind the overall plan for this project seems quite good.
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| An artist's rendering of the site |
Wow I had no idea this was underway. How exciting, I can't wait! I agree that two years sounds extremely soon. I don't think they will finish that early, but the sooner the better!
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