Archinect - News

Lana Del Rey is right: There is a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard

2024-02-01T13:10:00-05:00

With days to go until the 2024 Grammy Awards, one nominee in the running for Album of the Year contains an unexpected architectural overture.

Lana Del Rey’s Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, nominated in three categories, contains a song of the same name that dwells on an abandoned piece of infrastructure in Long Beach, California.

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In the song “Did You Know There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd,” Del Rey draws on themes of being forgotten and underappreciated in the future despite current fame. The lyrics draw a parallel between Long Beach's Jergins Tunnel under Ocean Boulevard which was closed to the public in 1967 and has since been largely forgotten, a historical fact Del Rey entwines with her own foreboding of one day being unappreciated and overlooked.

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Constructed in 1927, the su...

Long Beach Mayor addresses DNC convention from the offices of Studio One Eleven

2020-08-20T13:11:00-04:00

If you caught the second night of the Democratic National Convention on August 18th, you might have seen Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia address the nation as one of the Democratic Party's 17 "rising stars."

The address, it turns out, was filmed at Long Beach headquarters of Studio One Eleven, an architecture and urban design firm that has long been involved with revitalizing the city's urban fabric. The firm's 34,300-square-foot offices, which are shared with the commercial architecture firm RDC and development support firm Fathom, are located in an former big-box department store that has been adaptively reused by the architects to achieve LEED Platinum and WELL Gold certifications. The office renovation, which opened in 2016, kicked off the revitalization of a former 350,000-square-foot pedestrian mall in the Downtown Long Beach area led by Studio One Eleven, and includes a flexible community room, which allows for collaboration and hosting community events, according to the arch...

Edward Killingsworth-designed office building to be converted to essential service center by Studio One Eleven

2020-07-28T20:29:00-04:00

Long Beach-based Studio One Eleven has announced plans to convert a former medical office designed by midcentury modern architect Edward Killingsworth into an "essential service center" that will provide services for needy families as well as food for area residents experiencing food insecurity.

The facility will comprise the new home of St. Francis Center, a group of Secular Franciscans who have operated a neighborhood-serving facility in the area since 1970. The group's facilities temporary shut down in 2017 and are now set to reopen in October 2020 when work on the project is complete.

According to the architects, the renovated structure will "allow St. Francis Center to resume its crucial mission of providing food, clothing and emergency assistance in a nurturing atmosphere." The 5,400-square-foot complex is set to include a commercial kitchen, offices for employment and family consulting services, meeting spaces, and storage to provide clothing to the homeless, according to ...

HDR awarded $870 million California port rail project

2019-08-20T13:00:00-04:00

The Board of Harbor Commissioners of Long Beach, California, awarded a $38.7 million, five-year engineering design services contract to architectural, engineering and consulting firm HDR to perform the final design for the $870 million Pier B On-Dock Rail Support Facility Program at the Port of Long Beach. The project will help streamline rail operations and reduce congestion at the port, which has the second-highest volume of container traffic in the U.S.

The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach makes a splash with its new expansion "Pacific Visions"

2019-05-22T20:44:00-04:00

Pacific Visions is unlike any other aquarium expansion project. We are taking a unique, unconventional approach in creating a space where the focus is on the one species that is affecting all others on Earth: humans. Pacific Visions is a place where scientists, policymakers, and the public can come together to explore solutions to create a better future for all.”

Since its debut on June 20, 1998, the Aquarium of the Pacific has been an iconic landmark and public attraction to the city of Long Beach. The 5-acre public aquarium attracts over 1.5 million visitors a year. The aquarium features over 11,000 animals with an emphasis on exhibits highlighting information about the animals, their habitat, and conservation efforts.

The Aquarium of the Pacific. Image © Tom Bonner

Honda Pacific Visions Theatre - The Aquarium of the Pacific. Image © Tom Bonner

With the expansion taking over two years to complete, the $53-million project will make its official debut on Friday, May 24. The new expansion, called Pacific Visions, is a two-story, 29,000 square foot structure which will offer interactive exhibitions, an art gallery, and 300-seat theatre.

The Aquarium of the Pacific. Image © Tom Bonner

The structural form of the expansion is designed by San Francisco- based architecture firm EHDD. Its biomorphic shap...

SPF:architects' "Rainbow Bridge" is now open in Long Beach, CA

2018-02-08T20:13:00-05:00

SPF:architects' new pedestrian bridge, named "Rainbow Bridge", is now open to the public of Long Beach, CA. The bridge provides a connection between Long Beach's Convention Center and Performing Arts Center.

Rainbow Bridge by SPF:a located in Long Beach, CA. Image: SPF:a.

Previously, moving between these spaces required navigating loading docs and HVAC equipment on a stretch of the Seaside Way. Initially conceived of as a simple elevated sidewalk, the walkway developed into a much fuller project. Visitors can now not only easily connect between these two spaces, they can also enjoy an architectural experience along the way.

Rainbow Bridge by SPF:a located in Long Beach, CA. Image: SPF:a.

The finished project is a 600-foot bridge consisting of 76 custom-welded bent-steel ribs framing the top, and approximately 1,200 cubic yards of poured-in-place concrete shaping the base. The bridge canopy features 3,500 color-changing LED node lights, which can be programmed and synched to music to...

Long Beach Moves Forward on Southern California’s First Freeway Removal Project

2014-07-29T15:27:00-04:00

It’s been named one of the top “Freeways Without Futures” in the nation and described as a “perfect example of obsolete infrastructure.” [...] Now, nearly half a decade later, the project to remove a large portion of the Terminal Island (TI) Freeway in West Long Beach has officially gone out to bid in an RFP with an estimated bid value of $225K. It marks a major event in Southern California’s urban design history, being the first freeway removal project [...].

Innovators in California architecture take part in M&A exhibition, opening tomorrow in Long Beach

2014-01-24T17:55:00-05:00

Heads up to our Angeleno readers looking for weekend plans, come to the opening reception of "Materials & Applications: Building Something (Beyond) Beautiful, Projects 2002 - 2013", taking place on Jan. 25 from 6 to 8 p.m at the University Art Museum in Cal State Long Beach.

Starting tomorrow, the M&A exhibition will feature works of the most active, up-and-coming names in California architecture.

Below is a handful of the works in the show:

Bubbles by FoxLin

Fat Fringe by Layer

Light Frames by Gail Borden

Yakuza Lou by Eddy Sykes

Find the complete list of exhibitors and other details on Bustler.

Images courtesy of Materials & Applications.

Gwynne Pugh Urban Studio Selected to Revitalize Half Block of Long Beach

2013-08-13T17:19:00-04:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FAÇADE IMPROVEMENT TO INVIGORATE HALF BLOCK OF LONG BEACH

Long Beach, CA, August 12, 2013

The City of Long Beach is revitalizing a half-block in need of an upgrade at the corner of Long Beach Blvd. and Anaheim Street across from the Blue Line.

Gwynne Pugh Urban Studio (GP-US) was selected to complete a full façade improvement for four consecutive buildings. The renovation will provide significant visual and aesthetic improvements, upgrade, strengthen and unify the block to reinvigorate it as a desirable pedestrian oriented environment. Team members include EGG Office for signage. The design will involve local artists to enliven this urban area at the pedestrian level with color and public art. This project is another urban design element to help invigorate the neighborhood. The project is being funded by a Community Block Development Grant.

Gwynne Pugh Urban Studio has a successful and long standing relationship with the City of Long Beach as well...

Long Beach officials top 600-foot-long 'Great Wall of Mulch'

2013-08-08T13:36:00-04:00

It is, first and foremost, a visual and sound buffer placed between residents and the diesel trucks rumbling along the 103 Freeway to and from the Port of Long Beach. But the wall, two fences stuffed with mulch generated from Long Beach tree trimmings, is also environmentally friendly; it will eventually be seeded with trees and shrubs that will leech vehicle exhaust from the air and transform the pollution into oxygen.