Eight Downtown Los Angeles Landmarks Hidden in Plain Sight→

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Who knew?

"This week, the city of Los Angeles and the Getty Conservation Institute launched a new website, HistoricPlacesLA, that allows users to search thousands of historically significant sites across Los Angeles, filtering results by all kinds of things, including architectural period and date. Those filters are vital because there are so many interesting, important old buildings and structures around the city that it's a little overwhelming. Just looking for city-designated Historic-Cultural Monuments in Downtown, for example, yields more than 20 sites. We've sifted through those and found some architecturally and historically intriguing sites that don't get as much attention as, say, the stunning Eastern Columbia Building, and mapped them out here so you can impress your friends next time you're walking around Downtown."

- Bianca Barragan, Curbed LA

Broadway Trade Center to House a Super-Fancy Miniature City→

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More great news for Downtown LA!

"Last we heard, the new owners of the enormous and historic Broadway Trade Center, just off Broadway at Hill and Eighth, were hoping to snag one major tenant (Apple?) and turn the building into a tech campus, but now it seems like that plan has mingled with earlier ones proposing a hotel and retail to create a sort of super-fancy, super-elaborate, multi-use complex in the Trade Center's 1.1 million square feet of space. Waterbridge Capital, which bought the BRC last year for around $130 million, is envisioning a mix of about a dozen uses, including a hotel, a food hall, 500,000 square feet of office space, and 200,000 square feet of luxury retail (Louis Vuitton and Tiffany's are name-dropped), says the LA Times. We're not sure who wants to buy an actual Louis Vuitton in Downtown (knock-offs are another story), but maybe if you build it, they will come?
Waterbridge hope the new BTC, originally opened in 1908, will also house a 200-room hotel, "a health club, two swimming pools, a community park, an urban farm and a luxury spa with a Turkish bath." Central to this incredible-sounding complex will be a two-story, "great, sexy food hall-market", says Robert Cohen, the president of RKF, which is in charge of leasing out the retail space. The rooftop will have bars, restaurants, and decks…"

- Bianca Barragan, Curbed LA