Six months after our last update, the glass exterior of the Arts District's first high-rise is taking shape just west of the L.A. River at 520 S. Mateo Street.

Alloy, which is being developed by San Francisco-based Carmel Partners, is rising from a property bounded by the 4th Street Bridge to the north, Santa Fe Avenue to the east, and Mateo Street to the west. The collection of mid-rise and high-rise buildings will eventually feature 475 live/work apartments, 105,000 square feet of office space, approximately 18,000 square feet of street-level shops and restaurants, and parking for 650 vehicles.

Aerial view of Alloy looking northeastHunter Kerhart Architectural Photography

Works Progress Architecture and Solomon Cordwell Buenz lead the design team for the project, which closely resembles the contemporary glass tower depicted in renderings. The building includes a series of terrace spaces which will be used for amenity decks, and will also transform an abandoned rail spur between Mateo and Santa Fe as a pedestrian paseo.

The most prominent element of Alloy is a 35-story, 390-foot-tall tower, which takes the crown of the tallest building in the Arts District. The high-rise will be attached through a shared podium to a smaller mid-rise office building to the west, which will front Mateo Street.

Aerial view looking westWorks Progress Architecture

While the project may be the tallest in the Arts District for the time being, competition looms on the horizon. A larger high-rise complex designed by Bjarke Ingels Group is in the works nearby, and prolific developer Onni Group is planning a 36-story high-rise just south of 7th Street.

The project represents a familiar strategy for Carmel, which has previously built a 30-story high-rise at the formerly low-slung intersection of La Cienega and Jefferson Boulevards in West Adams. The company's pipeline includes a similar high-rise planned just south of Beverly Hills city limits on La Cienega Boulevard, as well as mixed-use and multifamily residential developments proposed or under construction in East Hollywood and Sawtelle.

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