Los Angeles: The Latest Architecture and News

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Finding Form is a co-show art event showcasing the works of Jeff Morrical, Jeff Guiducci & Carmelia Chiang, all working as architects in Los Angeles.

Morrical's work, The Folded Ocean, incorporates single sheet sculptures shaped by folds and gravity. Guiducci & Chiang's work, Tangential Mode, demonstrates the many possibilities of extraordinary form through the use of a most ordinary material - PVC piping.

The opening reception took place on Jan 23, 2016 and will be open to the public through Feb 13, 2016 at Design Matters Gallery in West Los Angeles. (11527 W. Pico Blvd).

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The recently announced competition to redesign Pershing Square, Los Angeles’ oldest park, will be at least the sixth iteration of the space in the heart of the city’s rapidly changing downtown. Occupying a full city block, what is now Pershing Square (named for the World War I general) was part of the 1781 Spanish land grant to the City of Los Angeles, and was officially dedicated as a park, originally called La Plaza Abaja, in 1866.[1] The current iteration, designed by Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta and landscape architect Laurie Olin, with art installations by Barbara McCarren, opened in 1994. Just over twenty years later, the brightly-colored, geometric stucco structures, and the hardscape-heavy layout have faced extensive criticism–one local website is fond of calling it the city’s “most hated park”–but Legorreta and Olin’s design makes a bold statement for urban public space in Los Angeles, unmatched by any other park in the city.

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This fall, the Julius Shulman Institute at Woodbury University presents Matter, Light, and Form: Architectural Photographs of Wayne Thom, 1968-2003 at the Woodbury University Hollywood Gallery (WUHO).

In collaboration with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Cal Poly LA Metro Program in Architecture and Urban Design, Caroline Bos, co-founder and Principal Urban Planner of UNStudio (www.unstudio.com), will speak about recent architectural, infrastructural and masterplan projects carried out by UNStudio. She will also introduce UNStudio’s Urban Unit and the approach to knowledge sharing recently adopted by the practice to enable the development, application and dissemination of practice related research.

Ma Yansong, Founder and Principle Partner of MAD Architects, will launch his most recent book Shanshui City on October 13th at The Architecture & Design Museum, Los Angeles. The free event will begin with a brief presentation on Shanshui City by Ma Yansong at 7:00 p.m. and will be followed by a conversation with Frances Anderton of KCRW’s DnA: Design and Architecture, and Dean Qingyun Ma from the USC School of Architecture.

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For their most ambitious exhibition to date – artist duo DABSMYLA presents Before and Further, a 4,000 square foot installation takeover of a stand-alone 1930 built Spanish Revival workplace building, located on the Modernica factory property. DABSMYLA have fully transformed its interior and exterior with their newest paintings, sculptures, installations and exclusive furnishings from limited-edition fiberglass shell chairs and hand painted ceramics to custom-built lighting installations, all designed and created exclusively for their collaboration with Modernica. The already rich history of this building and Modernica create a fitting compliment for DABSMYLA’s spectacular experience. This long awaited solo show will be the follow up to their tremendous work in designing the logo and set of the 2015 MTV Movie Awards. This exhibition closes their already very busy year, which includes an enormous private showcase in New York City and having painted numerous murals worldwide.

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Pershing Square Renew, a public/private partnership formed by Los Angeles City Council member José Huizar, has launched an international design competition to re-imagine the five-acre urban park at the heart of downtown Los Angeles.

Platform for Architecture + Research (PAR) has reinterpreted the idea of "courtyard housing" with a 930-foot-tall "stack of individual houses" envisioned for a site on Los Angeles' Wilshire Boulevard. Named "Wilshire Tower," the conceptual skyscraper is one of many radical proposals being unveiled at the A+D Museum's ongoing “Shelter: Rethinking How We Live in Los Angeles” exhibition that exploring new forms of housing for Los Angeles.

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MAD Architects has proposed a futuristic model for housing in Los Angeles, as part of the ongoing “Shelter: Rethinking How We Live in Los Angeles” exhibition at the A+D Museum. Dubbed the "Cloud Corridor," the concept is based on Ma Yansong’s “Shanshui City” philosophy for architecture to "manifest the spiritual essence between people and nature." The vision is the opposite of sprawl, proposing a high-density vertical village made up of nine interconnected residential towers.

Beijing-born architect Ma Yansong, founder and principal of MAD Architects, will be delivering a lecture at LACMA on September 15th at 7:30pm. He will discuss his work and his concept of "Shanshui City," which is his vision to create a new balance between society, the city, and the environment through new forms of architecture. Ma is recognized as an important voice in the new generation of architects with projects in Asia, Europe, Canada, and the US. Works include Absolute Towers; Beijing 2050; China Wood Sculpture Museum; Harbin Cultural Island; Hutong Bubble 32; Ordos Museum; and Pingtan Art Museum.