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Soon to be the tallest building on the West Coast, Los Angeles' new Wilshire Grand tower reached a significant milestone yesterday as stakeholders and workers alike celebrated the building's "topping out."
While technically the tower still has about 200 feet to go before it reaches its final altitude 1,100 feet off the ground, yesterday's celebrations were for the completion of the building's concrete "central core," the structural skeleton of the building, according to the L.A. Times. Presently rising 892 feet off the ground, the hulking Wilshire Grand tower will eventually house a 900-room InterContinental hotel, several hundred thousand feet of office-space, and about 67,000 square feet of retail space.
Once completed, the Wilshire Grand will technically be taller than the U.S. Bank Tower because of the new building's architectural spire, though the U.S. Bank Tower has a higher roof-level.
Incidentally, the Wilshire Grand tower is one of the large first buildings constructed in Los Angeles since the abolition of LAFD's more-than 50-year-old regulation No. 10, which required all skyscrapers to be built with a helipad on the roof. In theory, the helipad could be used to evacuate people by helicopter in the event of a fire. Better building practices today mean that the rule could be eliminated.
Say what you will of the tower's blasé architecture—this writer thinks the building's most notable aspect is its size alone—the tower represents a fundamental shift in the way Los Angeles' downtown is conceptualized. Along with the Wilshire Grand, literally dozens of other skyscraper projects are flying up throughout the neighborhood.
Here are a few pictures of the building as it stands now:
#wilshiregrand topping off event. Follow us all day for updates pic.twitter.com/tDkkS1eO2J
— WilshireGrandCenter (@Wilshire_Grand) March 8, 2016
Toured the Wilshire Grand building-modern high rise construction w/ buckling restrained braces that span 3 stories pic.twitter.com/fQ9CNTOaLS
— Greg Otto (@GregOtto_WPM) March 3, 2016
And a view from the top during Monday's storm!
