Will Grand Avenue Live Up to the Hype?
The remarkably ambitious Grand Avenue Project has been hailed as a key to the urban rejuvenation of downtown Los Angeles. Combining architectural, streetscape, and park-planning elements with huge amounts of new retail and residential space, the project’s sheer reach recalls much earlier eras of urban design and scope. How will the project’s multiple and varied goals be reached? How will Grand Avenue balance public and private constituencies, funds, and needs? Will it all work? LA Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne, developer Bill Witte, president of The Related Companies of California, …
