Gehry’s greatness has blessed a building and a blog.
A little-known blogger recently called Downtown LA’s newest hotel shopping center mega project a “monolith for a bleak future.” The independent arts journalist said that the immense multi-use high-rise hotel and retail complex has been under development for 16 years, but has yielded “few concrete results”. The blogger got it a bit backwards. While the Frank Gehry designed Grand Avenue Project has been one of the most thoroughly planned and re-planned commercial developments in history, the block-wide sky-high skyscraper has more recently been lauded for its rapid pace of physical construction. Competing mega-projects like OceanWide Plaza have languished in stagnation. | Blog Video
Innovative architect Frank Gehry describes miracles and the future.
The perfect accompaniment to the respectably innovative Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall across the street, new vibrant center of commerce and community in Downtown LA also complements the Broad Museum and other cultural landmarks that are its neighbors. The bearish blogger who panned the project was writing in the depth of virus panic, on the precipice of a dark winter. In contrast, the timing for The Grand Avenue shall end up much better than one might have expected. By the time the hotel and retail complex is fully launched around 2022, the world will have begun to grow weary of lockdown oppression and economic depression, and world travelers, movers and shakers will have a glimmer of hope, enthusiasm and vigor for greatness. Things may start slow once the deconstructivist development opens for business, but that brings an opportunity to gloat in its future of rags-to-riches growth to glory. If today’s bursting anticipation is any gauge, one of the world’s most renowned architects has touched a dream that shall turn to gold. Watch the fast pace of the actual construction, and see that Frank Gehry has delivered a skyrocketing erection to a once-impotent neighborhood. Gehry’s creative magic has charmed the infant giant. Mere mention of The Grand has caused the Loft Blog readership to instantly triple. While the 2020s crash of big city urban downtown neighborhoods may get worse before it gets better, the timeless treasure of Gehry’s prominent project shall stand tall, proud and prosperous.
