Olympic & Olive – Lennar Multifamily Communities Developing 1.08 Acre Mixed-Use Building in Downtown LA
Multi-Housing News
September 9, 2014
Los Angeles—Lennar Multifamily Communities is developing Olympic & Olive, a planned 201-unit mixed-use rental community in downtown Los Angeles, which will include 4,000 square feet of retail space.
KTGY Group Inc. Architecture + Planning is designing the contemporary 1.08-acre development located in the South Park neighborhood on the southwest corner of Olympic Boulevard and Olive Street.
“Perhaps the most interesting feature of the building will be its open-air amenities,” David Senden, KTGY’s principal, tells MHN. “It features a third-floor pool and spa deck overlooking Olive Street. It’s unusual to be able to get sun to a swimming pool in a downtown location without putting it on the roof. We think we’ve done it here by opening a courtyard toward the south.”
Located at 1001 S. Olive St., the community will offer open floor plans consisting of 64 studios, 109 one-bedroom units and 28 two-bedroom units, ranging in size from approximately 500 square feet to 1,100 square feet. The development will also boast 12 two-story loft-style apartment units on the ground floor that feature individual walk-up entries with direct access from Olive Street, private patios and landscaped courtyards.
A roof-top deck will offer views of south Los Angeles, plus there’s a spacious courtyard on the north side of the building, a state-of-the-art fitness center and a dog park on the east side of the property.
The community’s ground floor level will offer retail space along Olympic Boulevard that wraps around a portion of Olive Street.
“The plan is to include a restaurant with outdoor seating along Olympic that would activate the street level and increase pedestrian activity,” Senden says. “Lennar is hoping to find a tenant that will generate the kind of buzz Millennials would like to be close to.”
Overall, the project design includes nearly 22,000 square feet of open space. Two above-grade levels of parking and one subterranean level are planned, providing a total of 228 spaces. The community will also have parking for 221 bikes.
According to Senden, there are many mixed-use towers going up in downtown Los Angeles, but KTGY concentrated on doing something different.
“We’re sensitive to the climate that is producing these seven-story buildings and some of the pushback against them,” he says. “Our hope with this building is to show that it’s not about the height. It is about creativity and quality. We’ve used materials that have a higher level of detail and require a bit more craftsmanship in their execution. We’ve also paid a lot of attention to the ground plane.”
Olympic & Olive is slated for completion in summer 2016.
