A 26-story residential tower that Beverly Hills tried and failed to block is heading toward design approval with a revised look.
According to Urbanize LA, a staff report filed with the Beverly Hills Architectural and Design Review Commission shows an updated design for the 200-unit building planned at 8844 Burton Way, a vacant lot between Herzl Way and Swall Drive that once housed the Temple Emanuel Youth Center. The staff recommends approval, noting that state law prohibits denial even though the project "is incongruent with surrounding development patterns."
The city can't say no.
Developer Crescent Heights won City Council approval for the project on March 24 after appealing a 3-2 Planning Commission denial from November 2025. The city attorney and planning staff had both concluded the commission was legally barred from rejecting the tower under California's Builder's Remedy provision, which lets developers bypass local zoning when a city lacks a state-certified housing element.
What the revised design looks like
Large Architecture's updated plans call for a nearly 310-foot tower with asymmetrical massing, floor-to-ceiling windows, curved balconies and a facade mixing terracotta brick, metal panels and white cast-in-place concrete. Changes from the earlier iteration include a more developed rooftop pool and amenity deck, screening around above-grade parking levels and an overall less boxy silhouette.
The 492,029-square-foot building would contain studios, two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments above 316 parking spaces and 24 bicycle spots, with 42,226 square feet of open space including the rooftop deck. Plans also call for private theaters, yoga studios and clubhouses, according to the Large Architecture website.
Affordable housing and the Builder's Remedy
The tower must reserve 22 units for lower-income residents: 14 for extremely low-income households and eight for moderate-income households. That affordable component triggers the Builder's Remedy protection.
Beverly Hills received 16 Builder's Remedy applications before the state certified the city's housing element on May 1, 2024, closing the window for new filings. Under that element, the city must plan for 3,104 new housing units by the end of the decade.
A contentious path to approval
The project drew sharp opposition when it first went before the Planning Commission. Vice Chair Lou Milkowski, voting to deny on Nov. 5, 2025, called the tower "a mammoth monstrosity that we haven't seen elsewhere," according to the Beverly Hills Courier.
Commissioner Terri Kaplan, who later voted against denial at that same November hearing, had acknowledged the broader tension at an Oct. 23, 2025 hearing on separate Builder's Remedy projects. "I don't necessarily like any of these projects, but I feel very constrained," she said at the time.
Elliott Kahn, a partner at Crescent Heights, said in September 2025 when the firm submitted revised plans increasing the building from 20 to 26 stories that the project would bring "200 much needed homes at a variety of price points, including severely lacking affordable housing" to one of Beverly Hills' most prominent multifamily corridors.
Crescent Heights originally proposed the project in March 2024 as a 20-story, 223-foot building with 40 affordable units. The current version is six stories taller, roughly 87 feet higher and carries fewer deed-restricted units.
What's next
The Architectural Commission staff report recommends granting design approval. No hearing date has been publicly confirmed. A separate 34-story tower, the Millennium Residences at 8300 Wilshire Blvd., is also in Beverly Hills' pipeline with groundbreaking targeted for 2027.
