Some Style for South Park: CIM Group Opens Gas Company Lofts in Los Angeles

The loft-style apartment building in the city's downtown includes 251 units and street-level retail. The residential project represents the first of four phases--a $247 million venture of Los Angeles-based developer CIM.

By Greg Aragon

	PHOTO BY GREG ARAGON

The heat is back on at the Gas Company buildings in downtown Los Angeles.

After 14 years of vacancy, three historic structures-built between 1924 and 1960-have been converted into 251, loft-style apartments and 22,500-sq.-ft. of street retail in the city's South Park district.

"It's a really cool and fun place to live," said resident Joe Kim, who moved into a bamboo-floored loft in late June. "I'm very close to work and will be able walk to Staples Center for Laker games."

Officially opened at Eighth and Flower streets on May 12, the $48 million Gas Company Lofts represents the first of a four-phase, $247 million development headed by Los Angeles-based CIM Group.

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The next phase, called South Village, will be bordered by Eighth, Ninth, Flower and Hope streets, and will include 1,200 units of rental and for-sale housing along with a Ralphs supermarket, restaurants and other retailers on 7.2-acres.

"South Village will be a community that reflects Los Angeles--a blend of old and new woven seamlessly into the greater fabric of downtown," said Shaul Kuba, a founding partner of CIM Group.

The conversion of the 380,727-sq.-ft. Gas Company Lofts was led by Santa Monica-based Killefer Flammang Architects and the Los Angeles office of the general contractor, Swinerton Builders.

The original 13-story Gas Company headquarters was built in 1924. The firm sold natural gas for stoves and heaters. The building was designed in a Renaissance Revival style by the father-son team of John Parkinson and Donald B. Parkinson, who also gave Los Angeles such downtown landmarks as City Hall and Union Station.

	PHOTO BY GREG ARAGON

In 1942, the Gas Company engaged renowned architect Robert Derrah to design a six-story expansion that combined Modern Minimalism and Art Deco styling. A third building, designed by Los Angeles-based A.C. Martin Partners Inc., was added 18 years later.

Mike Pulley, Swinerton's senior project manager, said that because the three separate buildings stand side by side, getting them to meet current seismic requirements was the project's greatest hurdle.

The buildings had to be seismically tied together by the use of large steel plates, known as drag struts.

These plates, which measure up to 60 -ft. long, have Nelson studs on them, which were drilled into the concrete decks of each building and then set into the existing slabs with epoxy to tie the buildings together. Each of the 25 drag struts used on the project measured 3/8-in. thick and ranged from 14- to 18-in. wide.

Pulley said the real work came in aligning the drag struts and recessing the existing concrete slabs for the thickness of the drag plate.

"All three buildings had concrete bond beams that were running in different directions [and we had] to identify the exact location of the bond beams," he added. "In one building, the bond beams were running north to south. In the connecting building, the bond beams were running east to west.

"At the top of the slab, where the concrete was recessed, we had to drill 2.5-in. holes into the bond beams to receive the Nelson studs that were attached to the drag plate. The drag plate with the Nelson studs was aligned and the drag plate and studs were set in place, level with the top of the concrete slab. The 1.5-in. holes were then grouted."

Located at 800, 810 and 820 S. Flower St., the Gas Company Lofts are not only a block from Staples Center, but they are also a short walk to the Los Angeles Convention Center, Metro Blue Line and Macy's Plaza shopping center.

The historic exterior architecture of the buildings is complemented on the inside by modern amenities and quality finishes such as gourmet kitchens with granite counters and stainless steel appliances, tiled bathrooms with vanities, ultra-hip lighting and fixtures; and walk-in closets.

With an open, rustic feel, many of the lofts have exposed ceilings, concrete beams and concrete, bamboo or cork floors.

	Robert Jay Chattel, the historical architect for the Gas Company project, points out features in one of the 251 lofts. Photo by Greg Aragon.

Jessica Fairchild, project manager with Santa Monica-based Killefer Flammang Architects, said a lot of thought and planning went into designing around three protected historical landmarks with many construction restrictions.

"Everything is set [on historical buildings]," she said. "To make a living unit that's nice, based on all the parameters, is sort of a puzzle."

She said the most perplexing piece was the six-story building built in 1960, which had no operable windows.

"We took out some of the metal panels that were on the façade and replaced them with about 90 aluminum windows," Fairchild said. "So we really changed the façade of that building."

She said that these changes, although necessary, led to several strategy sessions between her company, the Los Angeles Redevelopment Agency and the historical architect, Sherman Oaks-based Chattel Architecture Planning & Preservation Inc.

"We had to go back and forth with the historic folks to figure out how it was all going to work," Fairchild added.