February 25, 2008

It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s Sky Garden!

“I think this will undoubtedly be the best and most prominent building in Glendale’s recent history, if not the whole tri-cities area” -Alan Loomis (chief urban designer, Glendale)

Coming to downtown Glendale: Verdugo Gardens, a 24-story high-rise of condominium goodness that has been met with resounding approval by the city. And for once it’s not arbitrarily named, as the Johnson Fain / Rios Clementi Hale Studios-designed tower is poised to deliver on its botanic promises in spades, with a much hyped design from that incorporates eight Sky Gardens, which the News-Press describes as “three-story cubes, each 20 feet deep with open space built into the facade of the structure that give future residents access to park space high in the skyline.”

And those future residents will have to put up some big cash for the privilege, with terms like “upscale” synonymous with the project. On potential clientele the building is hoping to attract:

a likely demographic of residents who have disposable incomes, discerning tastes and high expectations of what Glendale should be and offer, said Councilman John Drayman, who also serves as the Redevelopment Agency chairman.

It’s awful nice of them to allow the poor folk to admire this avant-garde urban-natural experiment from the streets though. Verdugo Gardens will add 287 condos to the city, ostensibly making it one of the more visible residential developments on the slate after the arrival of Americana at Brand.

I guess Glendale really is serious about all that dense urban core talk.