Calling it the most meaningful economic development project in 20 years, the Los Angeles Business Council has honored L.A. LIVE with its Community Impact Award, a project masterplanned by global architecture, engineering and urban design practice RTKL.
“L.A. LIVE is the type of urban development that changes a city’s trajectory and sparks regeneration of the highest order,†said Norman Garden, AIA, LEED AP, RTKL senior vice president and director of the firm’s Commercial Practice Group. “Having been involved since the earliest stages of planning over a decade ago, RTKL is thrilled to see L.A. LIVE receive this level of recognition.â€
The award, presented at the 40th Annual Los Angeles Architectural Awards, recognizes the $2.5 billion, four-million-square-foot development for its role in reinvigorating a major downtown metropolis and creating a premier 24/7 Live, Work, Play Community for the city. RTKL has been deeply involved with L.A. LIVE since 1999, when it began preparing the 33-acre master plan and securing entitlements for what was then a span of parking lots and warehouses. As a result of extensive collaboration among Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), the City of Los Angeles and RTKL, L.A. LIVE has transformed the area into a vibrant urban district and economic engine.
Situated adjacent to the STAPLES Center and Los Angeles Convention Center, this strategically important development was completed in three phases. The first phase – opened in October 2007 – features NOKIA Theatre (a 7,100-seat performance venue), and NOKIA Plaza. The second phase designed by RTKL includes ESPN’s west coast broadcasting center and ESPN Zone, and the main entertainment building containing AEG’s headquarters, numerous restaurants, Club Nokia and the Grammy Museum. The last phase, recently opened, includes the JW Marriott and The Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Residences, a 14-screen Regal Cinemas, and meeting and ballroom spaces.
“It’s the most meaningful economic development project we’ve seen in the past 20 years,†Mary Leslie, president of the Los Angeles Business Council, said. “It’s reinvigorated downtown. It’s given L.A. the economic engine and infrastructure to be competitive at our convention center. It’s everything we would hope for in a public-private partnership in Los Angeles.â€
RTKL’s planning and urban design scheme creates a dynamic urbanist-inspired civic gathering place—a place that features a dense mix of uses and people, active most hours of the day and night. Providing unparalleled access to unique entertainment, shopping and dining experiences, L.A. LIVE is a new entertainment destination in the world’s entertainment capital.
