Housing Project Threatens the Historic Heart of Echo Park

The Echo Park Historical Society is voicing its opposition to a planned 75-unit apartment complex proposed for Glendale Boulevard and Park Avenue across from Echo Park Lake. The project calls for the demolition of several Buildings threatened with demolitionolder buildings that are part of a new design district created last year to protect the historic character of the area west of Echo Park Lake. Those smaller buildings – which reflect the scale and architecture found near the lake – would be replaced by a massive, three-story, block-long complex. If this project is approved in its current form, then certainly other developers could also seek to build such massive structures. One only need to look across the street, to a 75-foot-high, 500-space parking structure rising on Glendale Boulevard, to realize how the landscape of Echo Park will change if such mega projects continue to be built in the historic core of the neighborhood.

The EPHS has asked the developer, an affiliate of the Angelus Temple, to preserve the older buildings and construct new buildings on some adjacent empty lots it also owns. The developer has refused, offering to make the older buildings available for relocation but offering relatively little financial assistance to complete such a move.

The EPHS will be submitting a request that the 75-unit complex undergo a more thorough environmental review on the impact on historic resources. Stay tuned.