Commissioned by The McGregor Company for Mitsui Bank of Japan, Eighth/Hope/Grand is an entitlement study for a 450,000 sq. ft. mixed-use tower in the South Grand neighborhood of downtown Los Angeles, incorporating luxury residences, a boutique hotel, and street-level retail.
The entitlement study was a landmark in Los Angeles development: the first project to seek a “flexible entitlement” permit and the first to leverage recent zoning changes permitting development up to 13 FAR. The resulting tower — up to 650 feet tall — accommodates 155 luxury “Skyhouses,” a 175-room boutique hotel, 50,000 sq. ft. of retail, and parking for 450 vehicles.
The team developed six distinct massing options to test the advantages and trade-offs of each major volume configuration. The defining constraint was the lot’s narrow 90-foot width, which — combined with parking structure requirements — governed the placement of the tower cores and drove each design option toward distinct architectural solutions.
Option F represents the most ambitious response to the site: the Skyhouses configured as two-story through-units capturing both northern views of downtown and the San Gabriel Mountains and southern views toward the Pacific Ocean. To maximize return and separation from the hotel below, the residential slab is elevated on 120-foot concrete columns — a floating mass suspended above the city.
Client: The McGregor Company for: Mitsui Bank of Japan | Architect: Barton Myers Associates, Inc. | Land-Use Consultant: Craig Lawson & Co. | Land-Use Counsel: Munger Tolles & Olsen LLP | Parking: International Parking Design | Traffic: The Mobility Group | Environmental: Christopher A. Joseph and Associates
