If the new residential tower had been planned on another site, there is a good chance that the concrete plant located in the middle of the city would have contributed to its construction.
But it turns out that the century-old La Brea Avenue facility, which supplied concrete for buildings and roads in the Los Angeles area, is located where the tower is to be erected.
Today, the West Hollywood facility has ceased operations to make way for a new apartment tower.
A worker sprays water to reduce dust at the Cemex concrete plant in West Hollywood. A 34-story apartment building is planned for the site.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
The concrete plant that regularly filled fleets of trucks with ready-to-pour concrete established itself as an urban oddity in its final years, a dusty and noisy industrial yard on busy La Brea Avenue near Santa Boulevard Monica, in front of a shopping center. with a Target store.
Straddling the border between West Hollywood and Los Angeles, it draws on Los Angeles’ thriving Sycamore District, which includes high-end stores, restaurants and art galleries that have sprouted up in the formerly industrial neighborhood .
The Cemex Hollywood concrete plant was one of the last industrial businesses operating in West Hollywood, said Jennifer Alkire, the city’s deputy community development director.
The Cemex Concrete Plant in West Hollywood was described as “the pioneer concrete plant of the West” in a 1924 issue of Concrete magazine.
(CIM Group)
“It was definitely an unusual use, especially as the city continued to develop and change and grow,” she said. “Obviously, it existed long before the city was incorporated” in 1984.
A 1924 issue of Concrete magazine indicated that the operation at 1000 La Brea Ave. appeared to be “the pioneer mixing plant in the West,” the first of its kind offering “ready-mixed Portland cement concrete in quantities sufficient for a flagpole foundation or a 12-story building, and delivered directly on site when necessary.
Although concrete has been a favored building material for hundreds of years, it was advances in truck technology in the 20th century that made it practical to deliver it rather than mix it on site.
By 1924, concrete from the La Brea plant was being used to pave the streets of Los Angeles, according to the magazine. Clients included the Standard and Union oil companies, as well as the Famous Players-Lasky, Buster Keaton and Vitagraph film studios.
Ready-mix concrete plants continued to support development in the Southern California region during the post-World War II construction boom, according to a study prepared for a draft environmental impact report on the planned development of the La Brea Avenue site. The plant was modernized in the 1930s and 1960s and operated continuously until it closed a few weeks ago.
As far as mechanical factories go, it was pretty simple. Nearly vertical conveyor belts lifted the dry ingredients high into hoppers where they were mixed with water, then the wet concrete was poured into waiting trucks below. Concrete trucks regularly lined up in the surrounding streets before turning right onto La Brea Avenue with their stirring drums in motion.
Its latest operator, a Mexican multinational construction materials company Cemexdeclined to comment on the closure. The company’s owner, Los Angeles real estate developer CIM Group, said Cemex’s lease on the property was set to expire at the end of November and that it would rid the site of its structures and vacate it. By the end of October, most of the plant had been dismantled and transported.
CIM Group is seeking approval from the city of West Hollywood to build a 514-unit apartment complex that would occupy much of the former factory site and another parcel on La Brea Avenue. Called 1000 La Brea, it would rise 34 stories and include retail space for shops and restaurants.
It would have rooftop gardens, a swimming pool, a fitness center, a yoga room and a library. There would be underground and above-ground parking, and at least 20 percent of the units would have to be designated affordable with subsidized rents.
An artist’s rendering shows the apartment tower planned for the Cemex concrete plant site at 1000 Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood.
(CIM Group)
Shaul Kuba, co-founder of CIM Group, said he expects to be located on the edge of upscale Sycamore neighborhood will help the tenants of the building’s land. Neighbors would include Hollywood production facilities such as the former Warner Bros. studio. now known as Lot and other entertainment companies including broadcaster Sirius XM studios and Jay-Z’s entertainment company.
“It should become a place where people from the entertainment industry in the neighborhood can live and be close to their work,” he said. “The entertainment industry is very focused on this area right now.”
The east side of West Hollywood has evolved from a collection of mostly low-rise commercial buildings, Alkire said, to several multi-story, mixed-use residential buildings and neighborhood commercial properties, such as apartments Movietown Square and the West Hollywood Gateway shopping center. center.
California cities need more apartments to meet their housing goals, she said. “It’s definitely a priority of our city council and the state.”
CIM hopes to start the project next year and complete it by 2028, Kuba said.
