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Architects: Anonymous Architects
- Area: 1950 ft²
- Year: 2015
Los Angeles: The Latest Architecture and News
House in Trees / Anonymous Architects
Bunker Hill: The Memories of LA's Lost Neighborhood
The "living memories" of Los Angeles are seen and sensed in the way that space is occupied in the city; the traces left behind by what has been. "Lost Hills," a short documentary by LA-based television station KCET, is a snapshot of LA’s lost neighborhood, Bunker Hill, that in 1955 was approved for “slum clearance.” As a result, the entire area was removed almost without a trace - Angels Flight, a funicular railway that transported residents from Bunker Hill to the city center, is the only remaining structure after reopening half a block away from its original location in 1996.
Bunker Hill was originally an area inhabited by upper-middle class people, but that changed in the 20th Century when those people began to move away. This made it somewhat easier for LA to erase the history of the Hill in order to make way for functionality, following late 20th Century modernist thinking. Illustrating how space is so strongly tied to memory and emotion, the video depicts what one interviewee calls an “absence [that] makes a presence”; the city is the materialization of memory, partial and partly erased.
This Spectacular Aerial Video Shows the Whole LA River Before its Transformation
At its best, architecture has the power to confront the world’s most urgent social and environmental issues. The Los Angeles River sits at the center of many of these issues, thanks to the long-overdue plans to convert it from a concrete canal back into a social space and an ecological corridor; and thanks to its position as a symbol of the drought in California. In this serene video by filmmaker Chang Kim, the full length of the river is put on display, exploring a resource that is the topic of much debate in the Los Angeles area.
How the Crystal Cathedral Is Adapting for a New Life Out of the Spotlight
When the Crystal Cathedral was constructed near Los Angeles in 1980, its design was pure Hollywood: designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee for televangelist star Robert Schuller, the design combined traditional elements of church design with features that made it suitable for television broadcasts. However, when Crystal Cathedral Ministries filed for bankruptcy in 2010, the building was passed to a very different tenant, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, who then commissioned Los Angeles-based firm Johnson Fain to adapt the building to be a better fit for the Catholic Church.
A recent article by Mimi Zeiger for Architect Magazine investigates how Johnson Fain are converting the 1980 classic into something more suitable for its new life out of the spotlight—including modulating the light within the vast all-glass structure and rearranging the seating.
Light Box / ANX
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Architects: ANX
- Year: 2016
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Manufacturers: A606, Metal Window Corp., Rift Sawn
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Professionals: Bulson, CWI, Gordon Polon
Thom Mayne Completes Research on Houston’s Urban Future
Pritzker Prize winner Thom Mayne has completed a three-semester–long study of Houston’s future, given its current sprawling urban conditions and rapid growth. The project, conducted alongside 21 University of Houston students and faculty members Matt Johnson, Peter Zweig, and Jason Logan, focused on ways of addressing the problems that arise from Houston’s historical lack of zoning in conjunction with the largely unregulated growth of industry and capitalism. These approaches include reinventing the current energy infrastructure, changing real estate and density, and leveraging the lack of zoning to generate new ideas.
Director of London's Architectural Association, Brett Steele, to Become UCLA Dean
Brett Steele, Director of London's Architectural Association (AA) since 2005, has announced that he will become Dean of UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture in August 2017. Although American-born, Steele has since become a naturalized British citizen. He studied at the AA, the University of Oregon, and the San Francisco Art Institute respectively, before working as a Project Architect at Zaha Hadid Architects in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
BIG Unveils Mixed-Use Concrete Superstructure for Los Angeles' Arts District
BIG has revealed plans for a 2.6 million square foot (242,000 square meter) mixed-use complex in LA’s burgeoning Arts District. Called 670 Mesquit, the project will take the form of a series of stepped boxes containing 800,000 square feet of office space, 250 residential units and two hotels. The development will mark BIG’s first project in Los Angeles.
Black and Gold: How Paul Revere Williams Became the First African-American to Win the AIA's Highest Honor
Yesterday, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) announced that they had awarded the 2017 Gold Medal to Paul Revere Williams. Despite the manic production rate of his five-decade-long career, those not familiar with the architecture of Hollywood’s early years might be forgiven for not recognizing Williams’ name. But he is notable for having designed around 3,000 buildings, for being “the architect to the stars” including, among many others, Frank Sinatra... and for being the first black member of the AIA.
HKS-Designed L.A. Stadium Will Be the Largest in the NFL
After 21 years of playing in St. Louis, the Rams are moving back to Los Angeles — and a new stadium will greet them. Slated to open in 2019, HKS's new LA Stadium will be the largest in the NFL (covering three acres) in addition to the home of the Los Angeles Rams. Beyond sports usage, the structure will also host a performing arts center and sweeping public gardens.
Pierre Koenig’s Historic Case Study House #21 Could Be Yours... for the Right Price
One of modernism’s most iconic houses, Case Study House 21 (Bailey House) by Pierre Koenig, is now on sale. The two-bed/two-bath Hollywood Hills landmark has been touted as among the finest of Arts & Architecture Magazine’s Case Study Houses, and one of the program’s few truly experimental projects to explore groundbreaking design and materials.
Experience LA's Architecture Through This Spectacular Panoramic Time-Lapse
From the Griffith Observatory to the LAX Airport, LACMA’s Urban Light installation, the Bradbury Building, Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Broad, and more, Los Angeles is full of inspiring architecture. In his new 10K x 4K resolution video, photographer and filmmaker Joe Capra of Scientifantastic captures the beauty of LA through panoramic footage. Over a span of two years, Capra stitched time-lapse footage from two synced DSLR cameras together resulting in a spectacular view of the city.
Find out more about Capra’s work here, or view his timelapse of Rio de Janeiro here.
MAD Unveils Dual Lucas Museum Proposals for Los Angeles and San Francisco
In the latest episode of what has become a dramatic narrative worthy of its own space opera, The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art has revealed plans for their two newest hopes: prospective museum designs, one in Los Angeles and one in San Francisco, that could serve as the new home of filmmaker George Lucas’ eclectic personal collection of artworks, costumes and artifacts.
After their failed proposal for a mountain-shaped museum along the Chicago Waterfront, the museum has again tapped architect Ma Yansong and his firm, MAD Architects, to design both proposals for the California sites, the first along the water on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, and the second for a site in Exposition Park in Los Angeles, adjacent to the city’s Natural History Museum and the Coliseum.
Tom Wiscombe Architecture's Sculptural Belltower Wins Competition for Sunset Strip Billboard Design
The team led by Tom Wiscombe Architecture has been selected as the winner of the Sunset Spectacular Billboard Competition, which tasked firms to design a multi-dimensional, kinetic billboard to “bring creativity and originality back to the Sunset Strip.”
Triumphing over finalist proposals from Gensler, TAIT Towers Inc. and Zaha Hadid Architects, the winning design, titled “West Hollywood Belltower,” draws from West Hollywood’s unique history and relationship with the billboard, and builds on its evolution from 2-dimensional sign to 3-dimensional icon-object.
Super Villa / Wolf Architects
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Architects: Wolf Architects
- Area: 1327 m²
- Year: 2014
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Manufacturers: JJ Jones, Shouldice, TRU, Urban line, Vola
Blackbirds / Bestor Architecture
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Architects: Bestor Architecture
- Area: 1930 ft²
- Year: 2015
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Manufacturers: AXOR, C.R. Laurence, Hansgrohe, Owens Corning, Acor, +16
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Professionals: Shamim Engineering, Mia Lehrer + Associates, CRC Enterprises, Pacific Empire Builders
Hollywood Hills Residence / Struere
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Architects: Struere
- Area: 1200 ft²
- Year: 2015
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Manufacturers: C.R. Laurence, Bisazza, Caesarstone, El Verde Terrazzo inc., Emtek, +7