ROBERT JABLON
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - Famed architect Frank Gehry, who gave downtown its world-class Disney Concert Hall, has designed two skyscrapers as cornerstones of a huge project intended to bring night life to an area that is nearly deserted after office workers go home.

The buildings are part of the $1.8 billion Grand Avenue revitalization effort.

Few people venture to the district after dark, even though it includes the metal-sheathed Disney hall, Music Center and Museum of Contemporary Art.

“We want to activate the streets and energize Grand Avenue,” Gehry said in a prepared statement.

The pair of L-shaped buildings would be 50 and 24 stories tall and curtained with translucent glass.

The largest tower would include 250 condominiums, three rooftop pools, 275-room hotel, spa and health club. The smaller one would include 100 affordable housing rental units and 150 condos.

The structures would be Gehry’s first Los Angeles skyscrapers. He said the project is intended to give the area a mix of different age, economic and ethnic groups.

Gehry’s design would include shopping and dining pavilions that imitate the serpentine forms of the Disney hall. However, the pavilions would be built of stone and glass instead of steel.

“We’ve worked hard to make this a true L.A., building and to make it a great place to be,” he said.

The downtown area is quickly gentrifying, with artists and professionals snapping up units in converted office buildings that now feature million-dollar lofts. About 20,000 new residents are expected in the next decade.

Ground was broken last year on a $1.7 billion redevelopment project near the Staples Center arena. The sports and entertainment complex would include a West Coast headquarters for ESPN, Grammy museum, hotel and restaurants.

It is planned about 10 blocks south of the Grand Avenue project.