Senior Principal Ola Johansson of Thornton Tomasetti’s Los Angeles office, pictured third from right, with Perla on Broadway project partners at the top of the tower where the ceremonial final steel beam was placed. Photo by Gary Leonard, courtesy SCG America.
The first new residential high rise to be constructed in Los Angeles’ Historic Core neighborhood in more than a century topped out on July 26. Perla on Broadway is a 35-story, mixed-use condominium designed by architect CallisonRTKL to fit in with the district’s many landmark buildings. Thornton Tomasetti is providing structural engineering and performance-based design services to developer SCG America for the 740,000-square-foot project.
“It has been a pleasure to watch this tower, which is revitalizing downtown L.A.’s Historic Core, take shape while working closely with SCG America, CallisonRTKL and Swinerton,” Ola Johansson, principal in charge of the project, said.
Perla, whose units will range from 400 to 1,300 square feet, will feature a total of 44,000 square feet of amenities, including a pool deck atop of a 10-story podium and a rooftop terrace. Photo by Gary Leonard, courtesy SCG America.
With 450 condo units, the building, which broke ground in fall of 2017, will meet the growing demand for housing in the area when it opens in 2020. Its 7,000 square feet of ground-level retail and commercial space will add dynamic street and retail activity to the community.
Ola, left, presented with a model of the tower by SCG America’s Charles Wang at the topping out ceremony. Photo by Gary Leonard, courtesy SCG America.
Perla is located in the city’s Broadway Theatre District. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, it features the largest concentration of historic theaters on a single street in the U.S. Consequently, the project had strict architectural requirements for building materials and massing, including limitations on floor area as well as the tower and podium’s heights and setbacks. An architectural challenge was finding harmony between the historically inspired façade design and podium base massing, and the traditional materials and massing of the surrounding buildings.
Thornton Tomasetti Project Engineer Michail Mavrogiannis and Senior Associate Drew Kirkpatrick, fourth and third from right, respectively, with project partners from CallisonRTKL and Swinerton at the topping out ceremony.
Our structural performance-based design services gave the architect flexibility to achieve the intended design vision, including tall, open residential units with floor-to-ceiling windows devoid of obstructive beams. The rigorous PBD approach considered site-specific seismic conditions and realistic ground motions and required a detailed modeling of the structural frame, which resulted in a comprehensive understanding of the structure’s behavior and ultimately a better structural design. The other benefits of PBD included reduced construction time and cost, which have helped keep the project on track for its debut next year.
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