In coordination with general contractors, Matt Construction, Bergelectric completed the Landmark Apartments Tower—the first residential high-rise built west of the Los Angeles 405 Freeway in more than 40 years. The modern 34-story tower features 376 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments–including 16 affordable units–and a 40,000-sf landscaped park at the corner of Wilshire and Stoner Avenue.
The new, eye-catching structure rises 349 feet with floor-to-ceiling windows; horizontal balcony planes and glass guardrails intersect vertically to a rooftop cornice. The balconies become the recognizable design feature while allowing future high-rise residents to take advantage of the moderate coastal climate with ample access to the exterior from all living spaces.
Amenities include a Jr. Olympic-sized pool, a 2,500-sf state-of-the-art fitness center with an outdoor yoga deck, lobby, and an alfresco lounge with fire pits and an on-site café.
The Landmark team removed an entire footprint of an existing single-story supermarket building through four levels of below-grade parking on a shared property with an active 22-story commercial building to allow the installation of piles and a reinforced foundation needed to build a 34-story above-grade residential tower. The Landmark’s property has adjacent buildings on all sides, and the team installed a structural Raker system to support the surrounding terrain, as tie-backs leaving the property weren’t allowed.
A Pavilions supermarket previously stood where the building now stands, and the high-rise had to be built right through an existing, operating parking structure. Bergelectric crews participated in the selective demolition and modification of life safety systems required within the parking garage to allow areas outside of construction to remain in use, which took careful planning and coordination as the demo activities commenced.
The garage and commercial tower required rerouting the bus duct feeds from the utility and generator to allow structural reinforcement of the remainder of the garage in preparation for the new tower and street-level open space/public park along Wilshire Blvd., complete with imported dirt, green space, and tree planters.
Further complicating the challenge, the garage serves a neighboring 18-story office building and needed to continue functioning generally throughout construction– keeping commuters and personnel safe. But the task wasn’t as simple as demolishing a section of the working garage and building upwards from the emptied core. The entire structure would have lost integrity if the team had started wrecking each floor without proper engineering measures.
Bergelectric leaned on their BIM and Prefabrication Department for gross coordination of utilities, including bus duct feeds to the existing building and new tower, feeders, and floor box stub-up placement in the slabs. They stocked mobile material carts with prefabricated material for deck installations.
Bergelectric also used these carts for each apartment to include materials needed to build each unit, including prefabricated wall rough-ins and pre-wired load centers. These resources alleviated the installation process and allowed our crews to stay ahead of the aggressive project schedule.
Other systems installed by Bergelectric crews included access control, CCTV, fire alarm, audiovisual including background music in the lobbies and amenity areas, first responder radio communication system, and structure cabling including WiFi, Data, and Cable TV to all apartments.