A vacant apartment building in Mid-City that has stood boarded up and surrounded by construction fencing for 18 years is finally getting a makeover.
The Architectural Review Board approved plans to construct a two-story, four-unit multi-family building at 3004 Broadway at its meeting Nov. 5, with board member Kevin Daly calling the existing building the city’s last “haunted house.” The building was damaged in the 1994 Northridge Earthquake and received a reconstruction permit in 1997, but the project was not completed before the permit expired three years later.
The corner of Broadway and Stanford will soon be unrecognizable. The facade of the new building will alternate between light beige and gray and vary in depth. Metal balconies and decks on the roof and carport will be visible from the street.
Some nearby residents have raised concerns about the decks infringing on the privacy of neighbors. After a Sept. 13 community meeting, applicant Nathan Sewell relocated the roof decks away from a building adjoining the southern edge of the property and reduced the size of the deck above the carport.
Still, a few neighbors said at the ARB meeting they are worried sound will carry from the decks and think the modifications to the plan do not fully address their privacy concerns. Board members asked Sewell to enclose or plant around the carport deck to minimize its impact on neighbors, among other conditions.
The ARB also approved a three-story building containing 50 apartments and commercial space at 2822 Santa Monica Boulevard, which is currently occupied by a single-story strip mall. The ground floor of the building will house cafes, shops and restaurants with outdoor seating underneath an arcade of angled white columns. Corrugated metal and recessed balconies highlighted in bright orange and green form the facade.
Board members praised the design of the project and made only a few recommendations about lighting and landscaping before approving it. They were more critical of a proposed renovation of a one-story building at 1501 Broadway, which would convert the building into a creative office and a cafe, and asked the architect to simplify the design before returning to the ARB for approval.
Board members also made several conditions to an update to two adjoining apartments at at 1433-37 Euclid Street, which contain 11 units and have not been renovated since they were built in 1962. The renderings of the development show two symmetrical buildings facing each other over a central courtyard accessed through a gate.
The board asked the applicant to make the design of the entry softer and more appealing by making the gate more transparent and adding landscaping. It also recommended providing additional acoustic insulation to the building because it is located near a school.
