Jennifer Luce, principal and founder of LUCE et Studio Architects has shared her vision for the Mingei International Museum renovation in San Diego. The design is featured in a video by Jeff Durkin of Breadtruck Films. The Mingei is a nonprofit that collects, conserves and exhibits folk art, craft, and design objects in Balboa Park. During the building’s centennial, a $55 million campaign began to renovate the structure.
Skyler Dahan, an LA-based photographer, has captured Frank Lloyd Wright's Civic Center, in Marin County. Shot on Kodak Portra film with a Contax 645 medium format camera, the series of images highlight Frank Lloyd Wright's latest commission. Serving as a justice hall, the project was actually completed by Wright's protégé Aaron Green after the architect’s death.
Architecture, engineering, and planning firm HGA has unveiled the design for the John Adams Middle School Performing Arts Center in Santa Monica, California. The project is made to be a dynamic arts environment and incubator for students to explore and develop their artistic voices. As a gateway to the campus, the project will establish a strong visual identity for the school while engaging Santa Monica College and the city.
The City of Los Angeles has launched a $100,000 housing design challenge for low-rise developments. The competition asks architects and landscape architects to imagine "appealing and sustainable" models of low-rise, multi-unit housing. Organized by the Mayor’s Office and Chief Design Officer Christopher Hawthorne, the initiative aims to create new paths to home-ownership and housing affordability in Los Angeles.
Paul Revere Williams’ incredible architectural career spanned the growth of Hollywood. Artist Ibrahim Rayintakath illustrated 43 of Williams’ most notable California homes for HomeAdvisor, including addresses and an illustrated map so architecture buffs can check out these historic buildings in person. Between the 1920s and his retirement in 1973, Williams designed over 2,000 private homes - many for Hollywood creatives such as Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, and Johnny Weissmuller.
Design practice CROX has designed a conceptual vertical park for San Jose, California. Dubbed the San Jose Ring, the landmark project takes on a circular shape inspired by architect Lin Congran's idea of unity and historical continuity. As the team outlines, the project aims to reconnect people and nature through a huge loop, emphasizing connection through a combination of sculpture, architecture and park space.
The American Institute of Architects California (AIA CA) has announced the recipients of the 2020 Residential Design Awards. With nearly 100 projects submitted, the jury recognized ten projects with honor, merit and leading edge awards. As AIA California states, the jury took many aspects into consideration, looking for "exceptional design" that represents all that California architecture has to offer.
Google has released new details of a sprawling, 80-acre plan to transform downtown San Jose, California. Designed to be a corporate campus, the "Downtown West" development will emphasize public open space and parkland. Google intends to make the area feel less like a traditional corporate development by incorporating office space, housing, retail and other uses within a new urban neighborhood framework.
Architecture is defined by the ways people bring spaces to life. For Matthew Ollier, Partner and architect at Hawkins\Brown, the best buildings encourage interaction, collaboration and exchange. Currently, Ollier is leading the development of the firm's expansion into the North American market in Los Angeles. In an interview with ArchDaily, Ollier shares the team's approach to community engagement and building social value.
Storytelling is at the heart of architecture and design. For Josh Sanabria, CEO of independent media company DesignClass, great stories foster curiosity and creativity. Moving between design and technology, Sanabria has launched numerous competitions and interactive classes to celebrate design and advocate its impact. In a new interview with ArchDaily, Sanabria explores storytelling, media and technology, as well as how designers can create meaningful impact through their work.
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Heatherwick Studio has designed the Cove, a new waterfront experience for San Francisco. Seeking to activate and improve the beachfront, “while future-proofing the historic district and the City against the risks of earthquakes and climate change”, the Cove will put in place a next-generation, high-performance waterfront community that uniquely identifies with San Francisco.
Design studio Project Room has been announced as the winner of the competition to design and create a new standard streetlight for Los Angeles. Initiated by the City of L.A. and led by the Mayor's Office with the Bureau of Street Lighting, the competition asked designers to create a lighting system that would incorporate new technology, include space for text on each pole, and provide shade to help ease the impacts of the climate crisis.
This article was originally published on Common Edge.
The most arresting image, among many, in the documentary Laurel Canyon: A Place in Time, directed by Alison Ellwood, is a black-and-white photograph of Eric Clapton visiting Los Angeles for the first time on tour with Cream. He sits a few feet from Joni Mitchell, who is playing guitar, with a visibly stoned David Crosby in the background on the backyard lawn of Cass Elliot’s house. Clapton observes Mitchell with such a smoldering intensity you think he’s going to blow an amp. He is transfixed by Mitchell not because she was striking—and she was—but because of her musicianship.
HED and Moore Ruble Yudell's new Santa Monica High School Discovery Building is currently under construction. Working with contractor McCarthy, the project is designed to embrace Open Building principles for a better K12 education experience. Made to prepare students for a dynamic future amongst social, cultural and pedagogical change, the 1,200-student facility supports different modes of learning for Santa Monica High School - locally known as Samohi.
Architectural practice Hawkins\Brown has designed a new mixed-use tower development for Hollywood. The project combines 117,000 square feet of office and retail space for the area's growing media and creative community. As the design team outlines, the proposed project was made to address a growing demand for creative offices in Hollywood, where an influx of entertainment and technology firms are seeking Class-A space in a tight market.
The Chet Holifield Federal Building in Laguna Niguel, California—better known to locals as the “Ziggurat” for obvious reasons—is reportedly at risk of demolition. The six-story, one-million-square-foot government services building is on the chopping block as the U.S. Public Buildings Reform Board, responsible for unloading federal facilities, will likely sell the structure as early as next year.
Construction technology company Mighty Buildings has completed a new 3D-printed Accessory Dwelling Unit in San Diego, California. The company recently launched with the aim of using 3D printing and robotic automation to build more affordable and sustainable homes. Their pilot project, the Mighty Duo B, comprises two modular units that took eight total weeks from fabrication to assembly on site.
This article was originally published on Common Edge.
In March 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic shifted our university—the University of California, Berkeley—totally online, along with the whole of education from childcare up across the country and most of the planet. In the wake of this forced and unprecedented experiment, debates about what it means remain ongoing. Will the episodic dream of a placeless university, or at minimum a hybrid place/placeless one, come true? Millennia of experience argue for giving higher education a local, physical anchor. And most universities and colleges have this anchor as their starting place, even as they consider what their ongoing experience with virtual teaching, research, and administration means.
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