Koll Starts Its Largest Project in Southland
The Koll Co. has begun construction of its largest single project to date in Southern California--a $120-million development in Koll Center Irvine.
It will include twin 12-story, triangular office buildings, a 2,000-car parking structure and three restaurants, according to Richard M. Ortwein, president of Koll’s Newport Beach Division.
When completed in late 1987, the structures will add 600,000 square feet of office space to Koll Center Irvine, the $1-billion mixed-use complex adjacent to the San Diego Freeway.
Leasing Nearly Complete
While the vacancy rate for office space in Orange County is reported to be 20% in Coldwell Banker’s most recent study, and 23% near John Wayne Airport, the Koll Co. reports that it has leased virtually all of its center’s existing 1.5 million square feet.
The twin towers will rise in Koll Center’s 46-acre north sector, between MacArthur Boulevard and Von Karman Avenue.
The towers later will be joined by four additional 12-story office buildings, a 500-room hotel, restaurants, retail stores, a multi-screen cinema and an athletic club, all surrounding a grand plaza.
Designed by the architectural firm of Langdon Wilson Mumper, the towers will have horizontal bands of red Swedish granite with alternating horizontal bands of solar gray glass. The lower three levels of each tower will be treated separately, bringing the levels back to a pedestrian scale, according to Michael Lewis, Koll’s vice president of development.
A series of retail shops are planned on the ground level. The other two other levels will offer what he termed “intimate” corner offices that take advantage of the lower levels’ multifaceted design.
The recently completed first phase of the center’s north sector includes a 12-story tower, leased to Taco Bell for its corporate headquarters, two low-rise office buildings and two hotels--a 13-story, 340-room Holiday Inn, which opened in May, and an 11-story, 260-room Embassy Suites, which will open in September.
When completed in 1992, Koll Center Irvine will include 17 office buildings with 4 million square feet, four hotels with 1,850 rooms, up to 20 restaurants, retail stores and the health club on a total of 95 acres situated on both sides of the San Diego Freeway at Von Karman Ave.
Koll Construction Co. is general contractor and Columbia Savings & Loan Assn. is joint-venture partner on the 46-acre north sector.
