Traffic Woes Foreseen : Office Buildings Rise in Financial District

After a three-year hiatus in major new construction, more than a million square feet of new office space is rising in the financial district of downtown Glendale, near the Ventura Freeway.

Soon to come are thousands of new workers and thousands of more automobiles, making a significant impact on traffic patterns and congestion downtown, city officials said.

Steel frames of three office buildings have emerged on the skyline of the redevelopment area in the last few months. Construction of a fourth--to be the tallest in the city, at 20 stories--is about to begin. Scheduled to be completed within eight to 18 months, all the buildings are within four blocks of one another.

The $171 million in construction will increase office space by 50% in the financial district, which the city has designated along Brand Boulevard and Central Avenue between Lexington Drive and Glenoaks Boulevard. Traffic on already congested downtown streets will increase nearly 32%, pushing access routes to the Ventura Freeway to capacity, said Ken Johnson, city traffic engineer.

The four major projects under construction are:

Allstate Plaza. The first of the projects to get under way, the $43-million, 13-story office building at 801 N. Brand Blvd. is expected to be completed by fall. The 285,000-square-foot building will feature an extensive landscaped plaza with seating areas and cascading waterfalls. A parking garage for 1,026 cars will extend across Arden to the Verdugo Wash. Allstate Insurance Co., the developer, plans to include retail and restaurant facilities on the ground floor. The new tower will become part of the campus-like Sears Savings Plaza, which has two eight-story office buildings.

520 N. Central. A September opening is planned by developers Dorn-Platz Group of Glendale for this eight-story office project. The $15-million building, designed for small- and medium-size professional offices, will have 102,000 square feet and will provide parking for 347 vehicles. It too will have a landscaped plaza between the office building and a four-level parking structure.

505 N. Brand. Reliance Development Co. Inc. of Los Angeles is building a 15-story office tower next to a three-story retail and office building. The $65-million development will include a landscaped center plaza with water fountains, artwork and seating areas. The project will include 329,000 square feet of office space, 50,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space and a parking structure that will hold 1,189 cars.

550 N. Brand. Developer Smith & Hricik of Los Angeles purchased the site from Jaymont Properties Inc. of Chicago in October and plans to soon begin excavation for a $48-million, 20-story tower. The building will consist of a 16-story office tower with 306,000 square feet perched atop a five-level “parking podium,” with one level underground. The ground level of the 860-stall parking structure will contain retail space for shops and restaurants. Completion is expected in mid-1987.

The four buildings are the first developed under the city’s stringent new design guidelines, adopted in 1983, said Ed Lee, city redevelopment project coordinator. Under the guidelines, redevelopment projects must include such amenities as ground-level retail shops and pedestrian plazas with landscaping, seating areas and fountains. Also, high-rise buildings must have stepped-back upper floors, eliminating the once-typical rectangles.

The city this month was awarded a prestigious citation for its design guidelines by Progressive Architecture magazine. The guidelines were developed by the ELS Design Group of Berkeley after residents and business leaders complained that new buildings in the project area, formed in 1972, lack aesthetic appeal.

Cost to Taxpayers

Land for two of the projects, the Allstate and Reliance buildings, was acquired by the city agency and sold to developers at reduced prices at a total cost to taxpayers of $4.2 million. The city also provided $12 million in bond financing for construction of a parking garage at the Reliance project. No city funds were used for the Dorn-Platz and Smith & Hricik projects, redevelopment officials said.

City officials said the new projects will generate property-tax revenues, provide thousands of jobs and increase housing sales.

Lee said less than 200,000 square feet of vacant office space is now available in the redevelopment area, although the demand for new office space is expected to average 250,000 to 300,000 square feet per year for the several years. The vacancy rate in Glendale has fallen to less than 10% because of the lack of major construction in the last few years. However, vacancy rates in Los Angeles and other adjoining areas have climbed to 18% and more because of continued construction.

A study commissioned by the Glendale redevelopment agency last year concluded that the city must encourage office space development “to maintain a one-year supply of space on the market to meet the projected demand.” Lee said additional development will soon be needed to provide space for major corporations seeking to relocate to Glendale.

Despite the demand for office space, city officials acknowledge that streets in the financial district already are heavily congested with rush-hour traffic from high-rise buildings. When the buildings are completed, another 60,000 to 70,000 cars are expected to pour into downtown, said traffic engineer Johnson. “With that, the downtown is pretty well filled up,” he said. About 220,000 cars travel daily through downtown, which has a capacity of about 300,000 cars, he said.

“When we get into the upper reaches of congestion, which we are, then certain areas of the downtown are going to be impacted significantly by any increase in traffic,” Johnson said.

The city has studied a series of improvements to roads and changes in traffic patterns to reduce congestion downtown. Among possible changes are conversion of some two-way streets to one-way and the development of a major parking structure outside downtown where commuters could board shuttle buses.

The city also expects to synchronize traffic signals by computer to speed traffic flow, but that change will not come for at least a year, Johnson said.

However, left-turn signals will be installed this year at congested intersections, and access roads to freeways are being widened and restriped to provide more lanes. Johnson said signs also are being erected throughout the city to direct motorists to use alternative freeway ramps. Eventually, the city plans to widen main east-west streets to provide office workers routes to use besides the Ventura Freeway.

Bad Year for Brand

But a comprehensive traffic improvement plan is not expected to be fully in place for about five years, Johnson said. Meantime, officials warn that 1986 may become the worst year yet for traveling on upper Brand Boulevard and its adjacent arteries.

“The level of traffic service is bound to deteriorate a little bit as construction is progressing,” said Johnson. “And it is going to take about a year before any significant improvement is seen.”

Traffic problems on Brand and Central Avenue have been compounded by the steady flow of trucks and other construction equipment to building sites. Orange Street was closed this month to traffic between Milford and Doran streets. Parking spaces on parts of upper Brand and its side streets have been eliminated for construction equipment and barrier walls.

Congestion is expected to become even worse this spring when the city begins construction of a center divider on upper Brand, Johnson said. The tree-lined, grassy divider that separates north and south traffic on lower Brand will be extended through the financial district north of Lexington Drive to Glenoaks Boulevard.

Sidewalks will be widened and parallel parking spaces eliminated, Johnson said. During construction, some traffic lanes often will be closed, he said, forcing many drivers to select alternative routes.

Johnson said travel along upper Brand was already disrupted last year when the road was closed for replacement of the former two-lane Brand Boulevard bridges over the wash with a six-lane bridge. Johnson said similar disruption of traffic on Brand will continue for the next year, until construction of the divider is completed.

Despite efforts to reduce problems, city officials say some traffic congestion is to be expected in a busy downtown. “If you didn’t have congestion, you would have a dead downtown,” said Susan Shick, deputy redevelopment director.