High-rise hype in Los Angeles and Las Vegas

This weekend will mark a milestone in downtown's South Park, as the last of the South Group's high-rise residential towers has its grand opening. These are pioneering developments that downtown boosters hope will be followed by two much bigger projects: Grand Avenue on Bunker Hill and Park Fifth near Pershing Square. With the economic meltdown, we'll have to see. But the Downtown News reports the South Group's trio of towers is worth noting:

The curiously named Evo, the third and final installment of a project from Portland-based developer the South Group, has its grand opening on Sunday, Oct. 5. It marks the transformation of a block that was empty five years ago to one that has more than 700 residences today. It also marks the culmination of a $305 million investment.

There's also a high-rise boom going on in Vegas, to the dismay of aviation officials. According to the Associated Press:

Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration say new high-rise buildings in Las Vegas could complicate flights in the region in the future. Del Meadows, air traffic manager for the Las Vegas district of the FAA, says each new building takes more airspace away. Meadows says air traffic controllers see the city’s skyline as a slope angling upward from the runways just southeast of the Las Vegas Strip.

-- Shelby Grad

Photo: Los Angeles Times

Downtown L.A. streets to be closed for LAPD funeral Thursday morning

The funeral for Spree Desha, the LAPD officer killed in last week's terrible Metrolink crash, will be held  at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles, after a funeral procession from Parker Center. An Honors Ceremony will be held at the catherdral after the service.

The following streets will be closed:

Temple Street between Alameda Street & Grand Avenue

Hill Street between 1st and 3rd streets

Judge John Aiso Street between Temple and 1st

Though you'll be allowed to cross Temple at Los Angeles, Main and Spring streets and at Broadway until 8 a.m., it'll be heavy going. Those are Desha's parents in the photo. 

--Veronique de Turenne

Photo: Annie Wells / Los Angeles Times

LA's Tofu Festival says soy-anara

If you've been counting down the days to L.A.'s annual Tofu Festival next month, we've got some sad news. After 12 years of celebrating the joy of soy, organizers have called it quits. Here's the scoop from the Tofu Fest's website:

Thank you for your many years of support. We’ve enjoyed delicious tofu dishes with you under the sun for the last twelve years and thank you for helping to make the LA Tofu Festival one of the top food festivals in Los Angeles. As redevelopment in Little Tokyo and Downtown Los Angeles continues to boom, venues for such a large scale events have become scarce.

Fans of the fest already know tofu had its own official spokeswoman, as well as a blog where you can see pix of last year's event, as well as dishes such as tofu scramble and a carved tofu cow. At least one aficionado has blogged his sorrow at the festival's sudden demise on his site, Matthew's Alibi:

The Tofu Festival provided the sort of surreal sun-drenched cultural hodgepodge that feels unique to this city, and it was one of the first things that made me love Los Angeles. (It was surreal. Along the lines of, “Check out this roasting hot parking lot. They got soy in the shape of gourmet ice cream! And soy in the shape of a sausage. And soy milk. And soy bread. And soy noodles! And here comes the tofu ninja …

This year's annual Nisei Week Japanese Festival won't be quite the same without it.

-- Veronique de Turenne

Photo: Beatrice de Gea / Los Angeles Times

Downtown Diary: Mesmerizing median takes shape

The small triangle where Main and Spring streets intersect downtown has been undergoing a facelift in recent weeks. Gone are the often confusing ebb and flow of the streets as they merge just north of 9th street. In their place, workers have erected a median strip that grabs the attention of almost anyone who passes by, invoking as it does both the fantastical mind of Dr. Seuss and the earthbound pragmatism of horticulturalist Theodore Payne.

Bright green and blue spheres jut from the ground as if by magic, lit at night so they appear to hover over the street. They are interspersed with three floss silk trees, their trunks green and spiky, and iceplant with vibrant pink flowers.

The median’s location, at the edge of downtown’s fashion district, presented both a challenge and an opportunity, said Tom Lockett of the design firm Land Images, which worked for both the L.A. Department of Transportation and the MTA on the project. The goal, he said, was to do something “that was a little bit unique, perhaps reflective of the spirit and activity that goes on in that part of the world.”

Still, it was not without its own challenges. Because it's located at the intersection of three major streets, it needed to be visible — an attention-grabber for both drivers and pedestrians. It needed to withstand the inevitable encroachment of a driver onto the strip. And it needed to be easy to manage.

For those reasons, said Lockett, designers chose the low-water plants, and concrete and recycled colored glass for the spheres. (The colors come from the different containers that were crushed and recycled.)

“We felt the product would not just be cool to look at but very easy to manage,” said Lockett. “And you can just hose it off to clean it.”

More pix here.

-- Cara Mia DiMassa

Photo: Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times