Abundance of Rooms

Across the rentable spaces in Downtown Los Angeles, renters do not fully occupy all properties. These vacancy conditions are sometimes proportionally high or low, depending on the buildings’ age and the state of the economy. During the COVID-19 global pandemic and the waves of protests in 2020, these events reveal the vulnerability of DTLA properties. Shops and restaurants boarded up their storefronts, while other paycheck-to-paycheck residents could no longer afford the rent. It is during these times of crisis the occupancy level becomes more apparent. Whether residential condominiums, office buildings, or commercial spaces, larger chunks of properties will become available for reimagination in the foreseeable future.

The magic of DTLA, over the past 20 years, has been a miracle where the impossible is imaginable. In this segment, we present a series of speculative visions of unlikely potentials in the city.

In a post-COVID-19 world, DTLA might see a surge in vacancy. Or a sudden abundance of rooms.

If we take a subtractive approach and carve out the new vacancies, we could envision a completely different skyline of a new DTLA.

We can imagine new possibilities in this surge of abundance.

Programmatic mismatches have always been the hallmark of new beginnings, with uncharted myths to make.

These new vacancies, as abstract voids, can boost ways we reimagine DTLA.

The leftover solids, now a new skyline, can redefine the character of Downtown Los Angeles.

Similarly, the undeveloped parking structures can also become new playgrounds for both temporary and permanent design interventions.

Map of increasing and decreasing abundance of rooms.

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