Video: LA without Cars
Ross Ching’s video takes a look at a car-free Los Angeles, something unimaginable for a city that is so automobile dependent. But last weekend people had no choice as the heavily traveled 405 was closed. Carmageddon as it was called was part of a $1 billion dollar reconstruction project, including installation of an HOV lane and upgrading of some on/off ramps. The 10 mile section of the freeway was anticipated to be closed for 53 hours from midnight on July 15th until 5am July 18th however the construction ended a bit earlier. Tshirts were sold, apps were produced, and viral videos were all part of the epic closure of the 405.
Sunset Vine Tower / Kanner Architects
Neighbor to the Hollywood landmark Cinerama Dome, Sunset Vine Tower is a conversion of a 22-story office building into a 63-unit apartment building. This adaptive reuse project stands atop street-level retail. As the tallest building in Hollywood, Sunset Vine Tower’s Modernist design creates a dynamic exclamation point in the mostly traditional fabric of the Hollywood residential renaissance.
Architect: Kanner Architects
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Project Area: 110,000 sqf
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Nicolas O.S. Marques
ICrete / FKA
This space houses the corporate headquarters for a young company that is developing new technology for concrete. The objective was to design a think tank that would encourage interaction and reflect the innovative green products that they are developing.
Architect: The Felderman Keatinge + Associates (FKA)
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Photographs: Courtesy of FKA
Exhibition: COME IN! 2: Surf.Skate.Bike
This June A+D Museum presents the second installation of COME IN! …A Spatial Intervention where they invite the hottest of Los Angeles’ young design talent to take over their galleries, offices, storage closets, bathrooms; there is no “Off Limits.” COME IN! fuses this year with the LA themes of Surf, Skate and Bike. The design enthusiast who wants ownership in the coolest and top of the line design product and community.
On July 7, from 6-9PM, A+D will host THE PARTY! – to celebrate the COME IN! artists with an A+D skate park, live band, good music and art in action with murals and screen printing. CI! 2:Surf.Skate.Bike will remain on view through July 24. In addition to the installations, a pop-up shop will offer limited edition works and items for sale from COME IN! participants AND additional museum programming including film and music.
Video: NETWORK_LA transit
Network_LA Transit is a conceptual design response by Gensler Los Angeles to an open invitation by Sci-Arc, The Architect’s Newspaper and LA Metro to shift people from their cars to public transit.
More after the break.
LAPD MTD + MSP / John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects
This project is one piece of the Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) new headquarters facility, originally awarded through a competition to a team that included the LA office of DMJM/Design (now part of AECOM), Denver-based Roth+Sheppard, Studio 0.10, and John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects (JFAK).
Architect: John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Project Area: 300,000 sqf
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Fotoworks
Los Angeles Mission College / Cannon Design
Architects: Cannon Design
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Engineering: Integrated Engineering Consulting Engineers
Project area: 87,000 sqf
Photographs: Feinknopf Photography
Lafayette Park Recreation Center / Kanner Architects
The Lafayette Park Recreation Center is the first completed LEED-certified building for The City of Los Angeles. The project is a 15,000 sqf addition to, and remodel of an existing 1963 community center, resulting in an L-shaped plan. The design challenge was to deliver an inexpensive public building that would be low- to no- maintenance, functional and attractive.
Architects: Kanner Architects
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Client: The City of Los Angeles
Photographs: Nicolas O.S. Marques
Camino Nuevo High School / Daly Genik Architects
This charter high school houses 500 students in Silver Lake, a multi-cultural community adjacent to downtown Los Angeles. It is the third project, in a series of four that the Daly Genik Architects has designed for the charter school client. The schools were launched by a nonprofit community development corporation to provide small, focused schools for children in a dense and underserved urban Los Angeles neighborhood. In 2000 and 2003 the office completed an elementary and a middle school on a single block campus in MacArthur Park.
Architect: Daly Genik Architects
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Project Team: Kevin Daly (Principal-in-Charge), Tomaso Bradshaw, Patrick McEneany, Stephan Bohne, Anthony Anderson, Jared Ward, Aaron Whelton, Irena Bedenikovic, Timothy Morshead, Kody Kellogg
Structural Engineering: John Labib + Associates
Mechanical Engineering: Tsuchiyama Kaino Sun & Carter
Electrical Engineering: Konsortum 1
Civil Engineering: Pfeiler and Associates
Geotechnical Engineering: Geotechnologies, Inc.
Landscape Architect: Ahbe
Code Consulting: Schirmer Engineering
Specifications: Philip Easton
Contractor: Turner Special Projects
Photographs: Tim Griffith
Exhibition: 2×8 Source, presented by AIA|LA
2×8 is an annual exhibition sponsored by the AIA|LA, showcasing exemplary student work from architecture and design institutions throughout California. Each of the participating academic programs selects two projects that exemplify its core vision. The students’ design work will be judged by a noteworthy panel of architects and designers, who will then announce the winners at the exhibition opening and convene in a forum to discuss the successful work.
2×8 Mission: The AIA|LA Academic Outreach Committee, having established the AIA|LA AOC Scholarship Fund and awarded prizes and scholarships since the inception of 2×8 in 2002, is working aggressively this year to solidify a long-term endowment towards to recognizing and supporting future generations of emerging Architects. Winning students will take home scholarships in varying amounts. So far, 2×8 exhibitions have raised close to $100,000 in scholarship funds redistributed to California design students. Remaining donations are put toward an ever-growing endowment established for future student scholarships.
The exhbition started May 7 and will run until June 3 at the A+D Museum in Los Angeles. For more information, please click here.
Cactus Tower / Eric Owen Moss Architects
The existing 30,000 sqf building was originally used for light manufacturing, constructed in the 1940′s, has walls of poured concrete, and a roof structure that is a sequence of wood bow string trusses. A large steel frame, enclosed with corrugated metal, 50 feet high, is located just outside the warehouse, where a industrial press was once housed. The now vacant tower was stripped revealing a ramshackle steel support structure, and a supporting concrete block wall. With the intention to reuse the existing structure, Eric Owen Moss Architects reinterpreted the space to create an outdoor meeting and gathering area.
More photographs and drawings of the Cactus Tower following the break.
Architects: Eric Owen Moss Architects
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Photographs: Tom Bonner
Pleasantville / MANIFESTO
The Dingbat, which has long been a residential icon of the Los Angeles area, is direly in need of an update. Transportation and congestion are some of the greatest obstacles that Los Angeles faces today and the traditional Dingbat fails to respond to these problems in many ways. Not only has the limited capacity (6-8 households per building) proven insufficient in accommodating the rapidly increasing population and thus exacerbating already problematic sprawl, but the back-out parking spaces traversing the sidewalks create unfriendly and hazardous walking conditions for pedestrians making the already difficult journey to public transit even more of a challenge.
Flex: Flexible Learning Environments / HMC Architects
In 2010, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) held a design competition for a flexible solution to replace portable buildings across the district, and HMC Architects accepted the challenge. The district asked them to ignore their standards and put an emphasis on an ideas-based approach. They wanted creative, progressive responses to their problem, not dressed-up modular buildings. They challenged the traditional box shape of the classroom by looking at how the room is used and how it is currently under utilized. Although their design solution, which they named Flex, did not win the competition, their end product is a portable classroom solution that can be used at any school, with hope that their design can inspire other school districts to think differently when it comes to portable classrooms. More images and architects’ description after the break.
‘MonoVisioN’: An exhibition on photographer Scott Frances
Pacific Design Center is pleased to present MonoVisioN, a selection of photographs from design and architectural photographer Scott Frances. The exhibition, on view from March 22nd to April 29th, is located among the Design Loves Art Galleries on the Second Floor of the Blue Building at the Pacific Design Center in Blue Space 231.
Renowned for his architecture and lifestyle photography, Scott is a frequent contributor to such illustrious magazines as Architectural Digest, Vanity Fair, New York Times Magazine, and Departures. Scott has worked with many of the world’s most famous architects and designers after beginning his career shooting for Richard Meier. He has photographed the homes of such celebrities as Jennifer Aniston, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Jim Belushi, Claire Danes, Clive Davis, Steve Jobs, Elton John, Cindy Crawford, Ted Turner and Jessica Lange.
A book signing and lecture by Scott Frances will be held at 1:00PM on Thursday, March 24, 2011 in the Blue Conference Center (Suite B259). MonoVisioN is Scott’s first monograph and features a preface by Richard Meier. To see more of Scott’s work, visit: www.vh-artists.com.
Linda Flora Residence / Shubin+Donaldson Architects
This 26,800 sqf home, designed by Shubin+Donaldson Architects, not only merges with its remarkable environment, but virtually disappears. Except for a few deft lines and angles – such as the ordered rows of the surrounding vineyard – there is very little perceivable ‘built’ presence. The entrance is marked by a single low wall, delicately cut into the land while sheltering a stairway that immediately begins the descent into the home.
Project description, images, and drawings after the break.
Architect: Shubin+Donaldson Architects
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Partners in Charge: Russell Shubin and Robin Donaldson
Project Designer: Bradford Kelley
Project Area: 26,800 sqf
Project Year: In development
Renderings: Mike Amaya
Material beyond Materials: Composite Tectonics
“Material beyond Materials: A Composite Tectonics Conference on Advanced Materials and Digital Manufacturing” combines progressive presentations in the fields of architecture, the arts, engineering and materials research. The conference participants will present and discuss their most innovative ideas, projects and positions concerning materials, technology and the impact on the architecture and construction disciplines and professions.
Friday, March 25, 6-8pm
Saturday, March 26, 10am-5pm
SCI-Arc Campus 960 E. 3rd Street, Los Angeles, California, USA
Taking place on the SCI-Arc campus in downtown Los Angeles, the two-day forum open to the public and the community at large will explore technological advances in composite materials, innovations in construction, and current design discourse—with some of the most important names in today’s building, fabrication and design industries.
Lecture: Bjarke Ingels at A+D Museum
Bjarke Ingels is the founding partner of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), which he started in 2005. You can check his projects right here.
The lecture will take place this Thursday, March 3 at 7:30 pm. Presented by LACMA and the A+D Architecture and Design Museum, Los Angeles; organized by Francesca Garcia-Marques, Hon. AIA/LA and Ann Videriksen, Hon. AIA/LA.
For more information go to the event’s official website.
SOUPERgreen Exhibit at Architecture and Design Museum of Los Angeles
Between February 14th and April 14th the Architecture and Design Museum of Los Angeles will be exhibiting work from several designers that challenge the ubiquitous approach to environmentally conscious architecture and the normative application of technology to achieve sustainability. SOUPERgreen is a collection of five architectural propositions that explore technology as a means to promote the engagement between architecture and environment.
More on this exhibition and the proposals after the break.
Hollenbeck Replacement Police Station / AC Martin
AC Martin’s design for the Hollenbeck Replacement Police Station nicely complements the diverse and creative Boyle Heights community it serves, encourages public interaction, and creates a beneficial work environment for the officers. The welcoming, artistic, and safe new police station reinforces the Department’s efforts to create a more open, community-serving police force for the city.
Project description, images, and drawings after the break.
Architect: AC Martin
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
General Contractor: FTR International
Structural Engineer: Brandow & Johnston
Landscape Architect: Melendrez
Project Area: 54,000 sqf (main building), 115,000 sqf (parking structure), 7,000 sqf (vehicle maintenance)
Project Year: 2009
Client: Los Angeles Police Department, Hollenbeck Community Police Station
Photographs: Timothy Hursley
Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook / Safdie Rabines Architects
The Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook is a 57-acre urban state park located 500 feet above the city in the heart of Los Angeles. The park includes a new 10,000 square foot visitor center, observation deck and viewing areas, hiking trails, picnic areas and restored natural landscape. The turbulent history of the Baldwin Hills site, from oil wells to plans for massive residential development, stripped this mountain of most of its natural past. A critical part of the design process was to define the period that represented the site in its natural state and to create a suitable approach to the restoration of the site. It was also important to understand the history of land development in Los Angeles in order to better understand the symbolic value of this verdant mountain in the midst of a dense city.
Architects: Safdie Rabines Architects
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Structural Engineer: Nabih Youssef & Associates
Civil Engineer: Fuscoe Engineering
Landscape Architect: Wallace Roberts & Todd
MEP Engineer: Integrated Engineering
Habitat Restoration: NewFields Agricultural & Environmental Resources
General Contractor: Metro Builders and Engineers Group, Ltd.
Project Area: 57 Acres
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Undine Prohl
SOUPERgreen Exhibition
A+D, The Architecture and Design Museum of Los Angeles, presents Souper Green, an exhibition of new architectural work that offers a compelling alternative to the conventional idea of “being green” starting February 12th from 6pm-9pm to April 14th.
Highlighting the fact that technology is a key factor in the environmental crisis—to some a main cause, to others the best answer—this work questions the corresponding ways “green technology” is normally cast as a form of penance, and asked to “solve the problem” (as in “please-make-it-go-away-I-don’t-want-to-hear-about-it”). Instead, these five projects promote an attitude that looks at technology as a uniquely human means of expression, through which the “natural”—in its broadest sense—can be engaged and made more visible. More event description after the break.
