Digital Realty To Add New Data Center To Downtown LA Block

Austin-based data center developer Digital Realty has plans to replace a parking structure at 727 Grand Ave. in Downtown Los Angeles with a 13-story project, adding to the concentration of data centers in the area.

Digital Realty also owns a data center next door at 600 W. Seventh St., and the new project is less than one block from One Wilshire, a major communications hub for both the country and the entire Pacific Rim.

The new building is expected to total 230K SF and could be as tall as 280 feet, according to city planning filings. 

The project is designed by architecture firm Office Untitled, which locked in the job after a request for proposals process opened to local firms, Office Untitled principal and cofounder Shawn Gehle said. 

The Culver City-based firm has worked on a number of projects, including AvalonBay’s Ava complex in the Arts District, but this is its first data center. The project has been instructive, Gehle said.  

“The design challenge is really just making something that's incredibly contributive out of something that could be unbelievably mundane,” Gehle said. 

The building's location Downtown means its design needs to go beyond the warehouse-like structures that typically house data centers.

727 Grand will have a dynamic facade with panels placed in such a way as to create the illusion of movement throughout the day as the light hits them and their different orientations create a kind of “animation” in a low-tech way, Gehle said. 

“That's really the design challenge here: how to make infrastructure beautiful,” Gehle said. 

The project does have one commonality with other data centers in that it doesn't need windows and won't have any. 

Plans for the project were revealed in 2023, and the project could begin construction as soon as 2025, according to an initial study published by the city.