Wilshire Grand Center is a 1,100-foot (335.3 m) skyscraper in the Financial District of Downtown Los Angeles, California. It is the tallest building in Los Angeles, the tallest building in California, the tallest building west of the Mississippi River and outside of New York City and Chicago and the 9th tallest building in the United States. Its height surpasses the U.S. Bank Tower by 82 ft (25 m). The building will be part of a mixed-use hotel, retail, observation decks, shopping malls and office complex, expected to revitalize downtown Los Angeles and the area surrounding the building. The development of the complex is estimated to cost $1.2 billion. The plans include 67,000 square feet (6,225 m2) of retail, 677,000 square feet (62,895 m2) of Class A office space and 900 hotel rooms. InterContinental is the tower's hotel component, comprising 900 rooms and suites.
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Floor plans
- Floors basement to 7: Podium building with retail and InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown meeting rooms and ballroom.
- Floors 11 to 29: Office
- Floors 31 to 69: InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown hotel rooms
- Floor 70: InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown Check-in lobby and Sky Bar
- Floors 71 and 72: InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown Restaurants
- Floor 73: InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown Open-air observation deck and rooftop pool.
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History
The original Wilshire Grand Hotel opened in 1952 as the Hotel Statler, on the site of the new Wilshire Grand. In 1950, the City of Los Angeles issued the largest single building permit at the time for the construction of the hotel, which cost over $15 million. The hotel quickly became a landmark of downtown Los Angeles, and over its 59-year lifespan attracted famous guests including President John F. Kennedy and Pope John Paul II.
In 1954, two years after its opening, Hilton Hotels & Resorts purchased the Statler Hotels chain, renaming the hotel the Statler Hilton. In 1968 Hilton completed a $2.5 million renovation of the hotel and renamed it the Los Angeles Hilton, and later the Los Angeles Hilton and Towers. Reliance Group later purchased the hotel in 1983 and invested $30 million in renovations. Korean Air purchased the Los Angeles Hilton from Reliance in 1989. They changed the hotel's management and it became the Omni Los Angeles Hotel in 1995 and then later the Wilshire Grand Hotel in 1999.
Seeking to revive the Wilshire Grand as a landmark and icon of Los Angeles, Korean Air conceived the idea of developing a new complex which would include the tallest building in Los Angeles, at 1,099 feet (335 m). It is also part of an urban development effort to revitalize the Figueroa Street corridor of downtown Los Angeles as a vibrant light-and-sign district, similar to New York's Times Square. Deconstruction of the original building began on October 23, 2012 and continued for over a year until November 21, 2013 when a bottoming-out ceremony was held in the 106-foot pit (32 m) in which the tower will stand, officially ending the deconstruction of the former hotel.
Design
Originally envisioned as two towers, the taller of which would have been 1,250 feet (380 m) tall, the complex is now planned to be a single 1,100-foot (335 m), 73-story tower consisting of a mixed-use 900-room hotel, retail, observation deck and office space. The Los Angeles-based architectural firm, A.C. Martin Partners is overseeing the project and prepared the current design. They took over from Thomas Properties, who managed the early proposals, but the owners became dissatisfied with their approach. A distinctive feature of the building is its sail-shaped crown which will be illuminated with LED lighting at night. The tower will spearhead part of a new planned light and sign district that will extend along the Figueroa Corridor down to L.A. Live. According to recent renderings, it is unclear however to what extent LED lighting and advertising will be applied. Lead designer David C. Martin said that the spire and the entire exterior skin of the tower will be filled with programmable LED lighting. The spire weighs 200,000 pounds (91,000 kg) and adds 294 foot (90 m) in height to the building.
The skyscraper will also be a distinctive part of the Los Angeles skyline, as it will be the first building over 75 feet tall built since 1974 to not feature a "flat roof" design, an integral part of buildings in Los Angeles today. The pattern of buildings in Los Angeles to feature these "flat roofs" was the result of a 1974 fire ordinance which required all tall buildings in the city to include rooftop helipads in response to the devastating 1974 Joelma Fire in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in which helicopters were used to affect rescues from the flat rooftop of the building. The Wilshire Grand was granted an exception by the Los Angeles City Fire Department however, as the building will include advances in fire safety and building technology (such as a reinforced concrete central core) which would exceed the city's current fire code.
Construction
Turner Construction received the contracts for both the demolition of the former hotel and the construction of the new tower, the latter of which began on February 15, 2014, when 21,600 cubic yards (16,500 m3) of concrete was poured over the course of 20 hours, creating an 18-foot-thick (5 m) foundation for what will be the tallest building west of the Mississippi. Land use entitlements and construction staking services were provided by Psomas.
The foundation is set on bedrock known as the Fernando Formation; this siltstone has been compressed by an ocean that formerly covered the area and is a good base for a building.
On February 16, 2014, Guinness World Records announced that 21,200 cubic yards (16,200 m3) of concrete, or eighty-two million pounds (37,000,000 kg), was poured at the site the previous day, breaking a prior record of 21,000 cubic yards (16,000 m3) of concrete poured in one continuous pour, which was set in 1999 during the construction of The Venetian hotel in Las Vegas.
On March 8, 2016, the topping out ceremony was held.
On March 17, 2016, a construction worker died by suicide after jumping from the 53rd floor, landing on a vehicle below.
On September 3, 2016, the Wilshire Grand became the tallest building in Los Angeles at 1,100 feet. The supertall building set to open June 23, 2017. Originally set to open March 8, 2017.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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