Construction has progressed to the fourth level above ground at Blossom Plaza, an upcoming residential-retail complex from the West Coast arm of Forest City Enterprises.

The $100 million development, located in Chinatown, will include 237 apartments when completed in Spring 2016.  The low-rise will include a mixture of studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans, including 53 units reserved as affordable housing.  The project will also feature 21 townhouse-style apartments along its southern perimeter.

Situated at the intersection of Broadway and College Street, the nearly two-acre development site lies directly north of the Gold Line's Chinatown Station.  Blossom Plaza will offer a direct connection between Broadway and the elevated Metro stop via a pedestrian paseo which bisects the property.  Earlier reports indicate that passageway will be flanked by more than 20,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.

The design of the low-rise complex were crafted by Los Angeles-based architecture firms Johnson Fain and Togawa Smith Martin.  Artistic renderings of the project portray a pair of colorful five-story structures which draw inspiration from traditional Chinese Architecture.  The buildings' paseo will feed into a richly landscaped plaza at the foot of the adjacent train station.

The arrival of Blossom Plaza may portend a more upmarket future for Chinatown, which has missed out on the residential construction boom currently enveloping much of Downtown Los Angeles.  The clearest example of this impending transformation may be College Station, a proposed mixed-use development which would rise from a vacant five-acre property immediatley south of Chinatown Station.  According to plans filed with the City of Los Angeles, the project could feature twin high-rise towers and up to 685 residential units.