© John Edward Linden

Architects: Brooks + Scarpa
Location: Eight locations along 3rd Street Promenade, Santa Monica
Client/Owner: Tina Rodriguez, Project Manager – tina.rodriguez@smgov.net
Project Team: Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA – Principal-in-Charge, Angela Brooks, AIA, Omar Barcena, Mark Buckland, Brad Buter, Silke Clemens, Stephanie Ericson, AIA, Jordon Gearhart, Chris Ghatak, Luis Gomez, Emily Hodgdon, Ching Luk, Matt Majack, Gwynne Pugh, Sri Sumantri 
Architect of Record: Taylor Fierce Orne Architects
Project Area: 2,071,139 sqf
Project Year: 2011
Photographs: John Edward Linden

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Courtesy of A+D

Now’s your chance to learn all about the wonderful world of Charles and Ray Eames at A+D Museum‘s ARkidECTURE + design workshop at The Eames Office Saturday, January 14th from 10AM – 1PM.

Carla Hartman, Education Director and granddaughter of Charles and Ray Eames, will lead this educational workshop where children will create their very own Eames designs including a custom ‘Eames House of Cards’ and their very own miniature paper chair. A tour of the Eames Office exhibition, Essential Eames: the Design of Knowledge, and its interactive component will also be given. Sign up now and join the fun! For more information, please visit here.

© Joshua White

Architect: Shimizu + Coggeshall Architects
Location: Santa Monica, California, United States
Project Team: Joshua Coggeshall, Janice Shimizu, Sean Harris, Ryan Klinger, Danny Mascari
Project Area: 2785 sf
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Joshua White

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© Ian Thomas

Hadrian Predock + John Frane’s project for the 2010 GLOW festival in Santa Monica titled “Luminous Passage” links the City to the Ocean as a porous and luminous land bridge. Connecting the existing Bay Street boardwalk to the ocean’s edge, the passage makes visible the connection across the sand to the edge of the Pacific. This is a physical tensile structure that supports light and connects the urban landscape of Santa Monica to the edge of the water, but also forms a conceptual leap that transitions from the “logics” that define the city to the those of the ocean. Taking the vertical nature of the city and merging it with the horizontal impulses of the pacific, a visceral and intense space twists and emerges. Composed of luminous lines of color (Electroluminescent wire – EL wire), the ambitious scale of the project is a relatively simple construction with only six fixed paper struts as primary support.

Architect: Predock Frane Architects
Location: Santa Monica, California, USA
Project Year: Fall 2010
Photographs: Ian Thomas

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© Fotoworks/Benny Chan

The 20th Street Offices serve as creative working studios for three design firms in Santa Monica, California. They consist of approximately 6,800 sf of studio space in a two story, plus mezzanine, building. They are located on a 7,500 square foot lot in one of the United States top ‘green’ cities. Santa Monica earned this ranking with its extensive Green Building Program and public policies. However, the prominence of sustainable initiatives in Santa Monica doesn’t end with policy; an extensive network of environmentally conscious citizens and business owners, of which the architects of the 20th Street Offices are a member, propels it forward. It is the firm’s desire, along side of its latest trajectories in architectural design and theory, to responsibly lead its fellow citizens, colleagues, and clients in green building initiatives and made no exception when designing their own offices as they pursued a LEED-NC Gold rating.

Architect: Belzberg Architects
Location: 1507 20th Street, Santa Monica, California, USA
Project Area: 2009
Project Year: 5,000 sqf
Photographs: Fotoworks/Benny Chan

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© John Edward Linden

Step Up on 5th is a bright new spot in downtown Santa Monica. A 2010 AIA Honor Award winner, the building provides a home, support services, and rehabilitation for the homeless and mentally disabled population. The new structure provides 46 studio apartments of permanent affordable housing. The project also includes ground level commercial/retail space and subterranean parking.

More after the break.

Architects: Brooks + Scarpa
Location: Santa Monica, California, USA
Principal-in-Charge: Angela Brooks, AIA
Design Architect: Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA
Project Team: Brad Buter, Silke Clemens, Ching Luk, Matt Majack, Luis Gomez, Omar Barcena, Dan Safarik, Gwynne Pugh
Structural Engineering: John Martin Associates
MEP Engineering: IBE Consulting Engineers
Environmental Consultant: Helios International
Metal Fabrication: Breakform Design
Contractor: Ruiz Brothers
Landscape: Landscape Scenarios
Client: Step Up, Tod Lipka, President and CEO
Project Area: 31,600 sqf
Project Year: 2009
Photography: John Edward Linden

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Courtesy of Brooks + Scarpa

The award winning, LEEDTM Gold Certified, Colorado Court by Brooks + Scarpa is 100% energy independent, distinguishing itself from most conventionally developed projects. Implementing energy efficient measures above and beyond the standard practices of the time, this project was able to optimize its building performance and ensure reduced energy use during all phases of construction and continuing upon occupancy.

The initial planning and design of Colorado Court was a direct derivative of an emphasis on passive solar design strategies. These strategies include: locating and orienting the building to control solar cooling loads; shaping and orienting the building for exposure to prevailing winds; shaping the building to induce buoyancy for natural ventilation; designing windows to maximize daylighting; shading south facing windows and minimizing west-facing glazing; designing windows to maximize natural ventilation; shaping and planning the interior to enhance daylight and natural air flow distribution.

More details, photographs, and drawings following the break.

Architects: Brooks + Scarpa
Location: 502 Colorado Avenue, Santa Monica, California, USA
Project-in-Charge: Lawrence Scarpa, AIA
Project Architect: Angela Brooks, AIA
Project Team: Gwynne Pugh, AIA, Anne Marie Burke, Heather Duncan, Vanessa Hardy, Bettina Hermsen, Tim Peterson, Ching Luk, Jackson Butler, Steve Kodama, FAIA
Project Energy Engineer: Dr. John G. Ingersoll of Helios International Inc
Structural Engineering: Youssef Associates
MEP Engineering: Storms and Lowe
Landscape Architects: Dry Design, Inc
Client: Community Corporation of Santa Monica
Project Area: 30,150 sqf
Project Year: 2002
Photographs: Courtesy of Brooks + Scarpa

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© XTEN Architecture

Project Name: Diamondhouse
Location: Santa Monica, California, USA
Architect: XTEN Architecture – Monika Haefelfinger & Austin Kelly (AIA, LEED AP)
Client: Aisha Ayers
Project Completion Date: Dec 2009
Project Size: 820sqf Interior, 500sqf Roof Deck, 1200sqf Exterior Terraces / Firepit Area
Landscaping/ Site Pieces: Mark Motonaga
Photographs: Art Gray Photography

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Back in June, we told you about Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects and Bruce Mau Design being awarded the Big Blue Bus Architectural and Branding Package by the city of Santa Monica.

Today, we have news they are ready to begin the next phase of the bus stop redevelopment project. The Santa Monica-inspired conceptual design, called “The Blue Spots,” is clean and unobtrusive, and was designed to enhance the city’s ambiance, which will eventually replace or enhance all 360 bus stops around the city. The structures will be flexible and able to adapt to various orientations and site specific conditions around the city. The goal is to have the first new stops in place by December 2010.

See more images after the break. read more »

The Los Angeles based Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects (LOHA) and Bruce Mau Design (BMD) have just been awarded the Big Blue Bus Architectural and Branding Package by the city of Santa Monica.  For over the past eighty years, the agency has provided organized and helpful services to all in the city.  The new project will provide the two internationally recognized firms with the opportunity to redevelop the agency by exploring how public transportation has the potential to cultivate, enrich and connect the community.

Further information after the break. read more »