Olympic Northwest

AEG, a globally recognized developer and operator of world-class sports and entertainment districts, including LA Live, is collaborating with WATG to deliver a meaningful new anchor to the existing campus. The goal is to integrate complementary entertainment offerings, social spaces, and mixed-use programs into a cohesive destination that enhances the downtown sports and entertainment fabric.

Situated on a 1.4-acre site formerly occupied by a surface parking lot, the project occupies a pivotal location bounded by the Courtyard by Marriott to the east, the three-tower Olympia scheme proposed to the west, and the curving geometry of Olympic Boulevard to the south. The site’s dense urban context demands a carefully calibrated massing and circulation strategy to maximize visibility, access, and efficiency.

“The Olympic Northwest tower features a mix of uses that will create unexpected synergies within the tower and the greater Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment District.  The highly visible seven story podium will serve as an exciting anchor for the LA Live campus that stretches the entertainment boundaries of LA Live into LA’s urban fabric.” – Daun St Amand, Managing Principal.

The design concept creates a place where local meets global, technology meets art, and a vibrant cultural mosaic unfolds, an urban retreat for both guests and residents. Drawing inspiration from theater screens, marquee signage, and cinematic traditions of Los Angeles, the architecture weaves together elements of the city’s entertainment heritage and the turrets of its Victorian-era landmarks to evoke a distinct sense of place and continuity.

Programmatic research guided the development of diverse entertainment offerings envisioned within the project. As the new anchor of LA Live, the design reimagines flexible, multi-venue spaces that offer a diversity of experiences under one roof. Programs may include experiential venues, immersive digital environments such as projection mapping and AR/VR exhibits, rotating art installations, pop-up events, esports arenas, escape rooms, multi-purpose performance halls, day and night clubs, and indoor–outdoor dining and lounge spaces. The design engages a wide range of audiences including tourists and visitors, culture and sports enthusiasts, local Angelenos, each experiencing the spaces through their own distinctive patterns of engagement.

The podium is designed to maximize visibility from Olympic Boulevard and serve as a major attraction within LA Live. Its undulating facade can display both static and animated digital billboards, amplifying the project’s presence within the district. Its corner turret feature recalls the historic massing of Downtown Los Angeles buildings. A transparent curtain wall reveals a vertical system of escalators along the street frontage, offering a clear path to the fifth-floor entertainment level. The elevation treatment for the tower is articulated with clean lines and variations of vertical elements on the podium.

Two facades are envisioned for large-scale art murals, with opportunities to collaborate with local artists to integrate Los Angeles’ cultural identity into the architecture. As the design evolves, opportunities for custom fabrications and locally sourced materials will reinforce authenticity and craftsmanship.

The first floor establishes a grand public arrival, featuring a motor lobby and generous valet drop-off serving both hotel and entertainment guests. Three basement levels accommodate residential parking, while the entertainment and hotel parking is stacked on levels two through four.

Levels five and six host expansive, flexible entertainment floors framed by tower cores and back-of-house functions at the perimeter. Food and beverage venues wrap the edges to allow adaptable configurations for future operators. Levels seven and eight house hotel amenities, including meeting spaces, a three-meal restaurant, main kitchen, and a pool terrace with a day-to-night club and specialty dining venue.

Set to the west of the podium, the tower is positioned to maximize the entertainment floor plates and create appropriate separation from neighboring structures. The hotel rises above with 334 guestrooms, 15 percent of which are suites. The residential component includes 364 units, each with a balcony. The undulating balcony perimeter establishes a distinct façade character, repeating on each level with subtle variations that bring a sense of rhythm and movement to the tower.

Typical residential floors accommodate 14 units, with a mix of 14 percent studios, 43 percent one-bedroom, and 43 percent two-bedroom residences. Dedicated residential amenities are located on levels 22 and 23, along with a rooftop pool and clubhouse that provide panoramic views of Los Angeles.

The final massing reaches 122 feet at the seven-story podium and 631 feet to the top of the tower, totaling 49 floors.

The design effort centered on bringing together residential, hotel, entertainment, retail, dining, meeting, and parking programs within a compact urban site in a way that remained efficient and cohesive. The team introduced solutions for generous off-street drop-off and loading zones in a tight urban setting and carefully aligned the tower’s core and structure to maintain open, column-free areas within the entertainment and parking floors. Structural engineering played a key role in realizing these long spans while meeting seismic resilience requirements.

“Olympic Northwest is envisioned as the next chapter of LA Live, a vertically layered destination where entertainment, hospitality, and living intersect to create an immersive, always-on urban experience. It reflects Los Angeles at its most dynamic, blending cultural storytelling and architectural expression into a new landmark for the city.” – Natalie Ruiz, Associate Principal, Architecture.

Olympic Northwest unites diverse urban programs into a single, vertically integrated experience that redefines the LA Live district. Balancing density, functionality, and expression, the design delivers a cohesive, future-ready destination rooted in the cultural and architectural identity of Los Angeles.