New Los Angeles Cruise Terminal Looks Out of This World

The West Coast has been a hot cruise market over the last few years, with cruise lines sending more ships and offering more sailings out of California ports. The local accessibility means the 40 million Californians do not need to fly 3 to 5 hours to get to Galveston or Miami. With the increase in popularity, there has been a need to expand infrastructure. Yesterday, the Port of Los Angeles announced a new cruise terminal that will help increase capacity even more.

New Outer Harbor Cruise Terminal Coming to Los Angeles

The new cruise terminal will be called the “New Outer Harbor Cruise Terminal” and will be built by Pacific Cruise Terminals LLC (PCT), a joint venture between Carrix, Inc. and JLC Infrastructure. It will be located at Berth 45 in the Outer Harbor, about a 15 minute drive from the existing Los Angeles cruise terminal.

The new terminal looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. Set right on the waterfront, the donut-shaped circular structure is wrapped around a lush, elevated green space. The roofline curves smoothly around a landscape, park-like environment with trees, walking paths, and gathering areas. Tiered seating will run along the back, allowing views of the ships coming and going. The area will open to the public as well, providing access to the waterfront.

While the building seems to be innovative, it is hard to avoid comparisons to Apple’s headquarters, which debuted in 2017.

The terminal will have two berths and will be able to accommodate the “newest and most environmentally sustainable cruise ships.” It should be noted that they did not say it could accommodate the “largest” ships in the world, although with most North American mainstream cruise lines set to debut 200,000 gross ton ships in 2030, that would be something they would presumably account for.

The terminal will have shore power available for both berths. That is significant because it means ships can plug in while docked and not have to burn their own fuel, reducing local pollution and possibly the overall environmental impact. Approximately 30% of California’s electricity is generated by solar, which means the energy used to power ships while docked is cleaner than ships burning diesel or liquefied natural gas (LNG), though it is not zero impact.

World Cruise Center to Be Renovated

The existing Los Angeles cruise terminal will be redeveloped as part of this project as well.

Completion Date Not Yet Known

At this time, there is no expected completion date for either project.

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