Proposed development near Sunset and Alvarado moves forward
Author: Steven Sharp.
This post was written for and originally published on 4/1/2021 on Urbanize LA
Plans call for a seven-story building with 176 apartments
An environmental study published last week by the Los Angeles Department of City Planning sheds new light on a proposed multifamily residential development near the busy intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Alvarado Street in Echo Park.
Cypress Equities Investments (CEI), the Los Angeles-based firm behind the project, submitted an application last year to the Planning Department seeking to build a seven-story structure on an amorphous property at 2225 Sunset Boulevard. The new development would replace a series of smaller commercial and residential buildings with up to 176 studio, one-, two-, three-, four-, and five-bedroom apartments above 203 podium and basement parking stalls. While plans do not call for ground-floor commercial uses, a series of live/work units would front Sunset Boulevard, according to architectural plans.
Requested entitlements for the project include Transit Oriented Communities incentives to achieve greater height and density than permitted by the property’s base zoning. In exchange, CEI would set aside 18 of the proposed apartments as deed-restricted affordable housing at the extremely low-income level.
Ottinger Architects is designing 2225 Sunset, which is depicted in conceptual renderings as a contemporary low-rise structure clad in a combination of corrugated metal panels and wood siding. The building would vary in height with a seven-story face along Sunset scaling down to a smaller four-story structure along Elsinore Street to the north. Planned on-site amenities include a gym, a courtyard, and a rooftop deck.
The design of 2225 Sunset, according to the Ottinger Architects website, was inspired by the site’s hillside location.
“The floor plates act as extrusions out of and up from the topography,” reads a design narrative. “Each floor plate is expressed as a continuous band of balconies or cornices that wrap around the building and the varied angles of the floors create movement and liveliness.”
Pending approvals by the City of Los Angeles, construction of 2225 Sunset is expected to occur over an approximately 28-month period, according to the project’s environmental study. An exact timeline is not specified.
The proposed development joins a handful of similar multifamily residential buildings proposed near Sunset and Alvarado, including a mixed-use structure slated to rise at the site of Taix Restaurant.
Brentwood-based Cypress Equity Investments is developing a handful of similar multifamily residential buildings in Santa Monica, and recently submitted plans to the City of Los Angeles to construct affordable housing in the Pico-Union neighborhood.