Apartments to replace Googie-style car wash in Inglewood

Allied Urban aims to build 222 units on Manchester Boulevard

Allied Urban's Randall Reel with a rendering of 939 W. Manchester Boulevard in Inglewood and the current 939 W. Manchester Boulevard in Inglewood (Allied Urban, TCA Architects, Google Maps)
Allied Urban's Randall Reel with a rendering of 939 W. Manchester Boulevard in Inglewood and the current 939 W. Manchester Boulevard in Inglewood (Allied Urban, TCA Architects, Google Maps)

A local developer aims to replace a Googie-style car wash in Inglewood with a mixed-use, 222-unit apartment complex.

Allied Urban, based in West Los Angeles, filed plans to build the eight-story apartment building at 939 West Manchester Boulevard, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.

Plans call for bulldozing the Jet Car Wash, built in 1961, whose parabolic spires aim toward the stratosphere. Its “eight prominent standard bearers frame the seven letters of ‘C A R W A S H’ with an ironic majesty,” proclaims Inglewoodpublicart.org.

The proposed complex would be built a block south of Westchester/Veterans Station along the K (Crenshaw/LAX) light rail line expected to open this month.

The 200,000-square-foot project, designed by TCA Architects of Los Angeles, would include studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments, including 11 units set aside as affordable.

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The triangle-shaped building, rounded at the corner, would be sheathed in white vertical panels broken up by vertical windows and gray inset balconies. It would include 3,500 square feet of ground-floor shops and restaurants and a three-level, mostly underground parking garage.

A staff report recommends that the Planning Commission fast-track the project and find it exempt from further review under the California Environmental Quality Act.

— Dana Bartholomew

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