Trump’s 125-Story Consciousness-Raising
Topping the in-basket on my return from vacation was a collection of clippings concerning Donald Trump’s proposal to build the world’s tallest skyscraper on the site of the Ambassador Hotel in the Mid-Wilshire District.
It convinced me that every city needs a proposal by the audacious Trump; the more outlandish the better.
For the last decade, various groups have been trying to generate public and private interest in the revitalization of the Mid-Wilshire District. The latest was a call last fall by UCLA’s Urban Innovations Group for development incentives tied to improvements.
There has been mention in the past here of the district’s desirable location, midway between downtown, the Westside and Hollywood; its diverse, if frayed, mix of housing and neighborhood shops and services; its competitively priced office space, and its rich array of architectural and cultural landmarks, including the Ambassador.
Issues involved in the design and development of the district include what density should be allowed in an area where three Metro Rail stations are planned; how the existing residential neighborhoods and their parks and playgrounds should be protected and improved; how to better manage the increasing traffic, and most recently, how to reconcile the critical need for new school facilities and the fate of the Ambassador.
These are pressing issues in this critically located, potentially desirable urban district, affecting hundreds of thousands of residents, thousands of businesses and their employees. If the tide of slovenly growth and incipient decay in the Mid-Wilshire district cannot be turned, then all of the city, from the new gleaming towers of downtown to mini-estates in Malibu, is in trouble.
But these issues generally have raised little interest beyond the involved planning, preservationist and development communities.
This is a town that tends to celebrate the shallow and temporal in easy-to-consume, gossipy bites--such as the latest MTV video and the restaurant of the moment--rather than contend with some of the onerous problems emerging out of Southern California’s increasing urban muck.
Then along comes Trump, clutching a minority interest in a real estate consortium that has bought the Ambassador, to announce plans for an ambitious mixed-use development topped by a 125-story skyscraper.
All of a sudden everybody is talking about “world class” architecture. How would a building of that size relate to Wilshire Boulevard? What is appropriate scale and massing? If not 125 stories, then how many? Where would the parking go? How would the traffic be handled? Should the Ambassador be retained and recycled as part of the project? And generally, what does this mean for the future of the district? Good questions.
For raising our design and planning consciousness, we should thank Trump. It is time we pay as much attention to such issues as we do, say, to the latest films, fashions, foods and fools.
As for Trump’s announcement, which he embellished a few days later saying that he would like to add 15 or so stories more to the tower, it is obvious from his past performances that the proposal is an immodest fishing expedition, a supercilious attempt to test the tepid L.A. waters.
Dutifully, the seas parted for Trump, the waves drenching a few fawning politicians and impressionable media types.
Expect in the next few months, when the tide comes in, a reshuffling of the design and development team, resulting in considerable shrinking of the tower.
A 25-story structure dominating a modestly scaled mix of retail and commercial uses along Wilshire Boulevard and apartments to the south more probably will emerge. Then the real debates and negotiations will begin.
Trump’s entry into the fray did have the calculated effect of giving a sharp elbow to the ribs of the Los Angeles Unified School District, which had been eyeing the site for a 2,000-student high school. The trumpeting no doubt was in part intended to pump up the land price and discourage the school board from attempting to condemn the site.
If so, Trump most likely will have earned back his investment plus and the thanks of the Mid-Wilshire merchants and surrounding neighborhoods.
As for recycling the hotel as a landmark, that is another matter, and perhaps with some imagination it can be incorporated into a viable redevelopment scheme.
Meanwhile, the hard-pressed school board could use a little imagination in its search for facilities to accommodate a burgeoning student population. The days of the sprawling campuses for schools is over.
It is time for the board to start looking at adapting commercial and industrial spaces, making better use of its own properties, designing sensitive additions, rethinking redistricting, sharing parks and playgrounds, closing streets and generally becoming more flexible.
The 23.5-acre Ambassador site should not be considered a hardball field by the school board or Trump. Too much is at stake for the Wilshire District, now that it is at last getting some attention.
