The recent approval of Geoffrey H. Palmer's "Lorenzo" development, at 23rd and Flower just south of Downtown L.A., will see the the Italophile real-estate tycoon's empire of apartment complexes grow to a total of 9 in the area. With nearly identical cheesy aesthetics to match their Tuscan-inspired names, I got to wondering whether we were actually starting to hit a point where they make up a large enough proportion of new residential properties in and around the financial district that the Palmer aesthetic is a noticeable aesthetic for the whole area!
I threw this together in Google maps (click for link to interactive map):
Of course, there are far more Downtown residential properties of both the converted historic bank building variety (seen throughout the Historic Core) and the new-build-loft glass and steel variety (as has come to define the South Park neighborhood). But Palmer's properties are arguably doing something similar in the north and west periphery of the financial district - especially as viewed from the 110 Freeway! Add to this some other similarly-styled developments like the ultra-cheesy "City Lights" complex opposite the Convention Center and a number of new buildings near USC (including the so-identical-and-aptly-named-I-assumed-it-was-Palmer "Tuscana") and you really have a theme going.
I've long had a sort of love-hate relationship with Palmer's buildings, ever since the "Medici" went up with great fanfare around 2000-2002 while I was living nearby, and soon became resort-style home to a many of my fellow USC students. On the one hand, Palmer was arguably pretty important in promoting the residential resurgence in Downtown L.A. - which has on measure been a good thing for the city. And certainly relatively dense apartment buildings are better than the surface parking lots most of his projects have replaced. But Palmer has been a less than caring community member, long dragging his heals about including low-income units, and the buildings themselves are lousy neighbors for their immediate surroundings, the largely lower-income streets north and west of the financial district where they have been plopped down (see this 2004 Downtown News piece for more on Palmer's controversial past.) And regardless of how one feels about the luxurious grounds and interiors or the cheesy Italianate design, many are fortress-like at street level, closed in on themselves and primarily accessible through their underground parking garages.
Even Lorenzo, despite concessions to community demands made to win approval and explicit claims of a transit- and pedestrian-oriented design - all certainly good signs - may still be headed for disappointment in this regard. (See this thorough, if now somewhat outdated, Streetsblog LA dissection of the project's T.O.D. potential). At best I suppose we can hope for something not unlike USC's Tuscana, somewhat oriented toward the street, with (unfortunately bland corporate) commercial use below the apartments. Aesthetically, probably no hope. At least Tuscana matches the Italianate explosion that is the rest of USC's central campus. Another hanging garden-inspired tropical Tuscan paradise at Lorenzo on 23rd Street will really be odd.
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