Archinect - News

LA's La Brea Tar Pits project picks Kossmanndejong to lead exhibition design

2023-01-31T19:32:00-05:00

Amsterdam’s Kossmanndejong (KDJ) has been announced by the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County as the lead exhibition designer for the La Brea Tar Pits overhaul following a competitive international search process.

In tandem with WEISS/MANFREDI and Los Angeles-based Gruen Associates, the studio will be tasked with handling the schematic design for the project, which will “reimagine” the 13-acre campus located nearby LACMA and the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures inside Hancock Park over a seven- to ten-year construction timeline.

Image: Weiss/Manfredi, courtesy NHMLAC

“We have been building toward a reimagined La Brea Tar Pits for several years now, as we plan for a visitor experience equal to the promise of sharing discoveries from a research site unique in the world,” the Museums’ Director Dr. Lori Bettison-Varga said in a statement. “Our goal is to highlight the vital relevance of the Tar Pits to our own era of climate change, provide facilities that better support ...

OMA's Audrey Irmas Pavilion at Wilshire Boulevard Temple is taking shape

2021-03-19T15:19:00-04:00

After breaking ground in late 2018 and topping out nearly one year later, the OMA/Shohei Shigematsu-designed Audrey Irmas Pavilion at Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles is increasingly taking shape.

The $75 million expansion — OMA's first building in the city — will house a chapel and terrace, a grand ballroom, meeting rooms, performance spaces, and a rooftop sky garden.

Rendering of the new Audrey Irmas Pavilion next to the historic 1929 temple building on Wilshire Boulevard in L.A.'s Koreatown neighborhood. Image courtesy of OMA New York.

Gruen Associates is the executive architect, Studio-MLA designed the sunken garden, and Arup is the structural and facade engineer on the project.

The new building is expected to open in early 2022.

Photographer Hunter Kerhart has shared a few more recent construction photos over at Urbanize LA.

First phase of Gensler's California Market Center overhaul in Los Angeles is complete

2020-03-17T12:36:00-04:00

A massive $170 million plan to overhaul the Gruen Associates-designed California Market Center (CMC) in Los Angeles has taken a step forward as developers Brookfield Properties have announced completion of the first phase of the project.

Views of the overall complex, which was originally designed by Norma Merrick Sklarek while she worked at Victor Gruen's office in the 1960s, (top) and of the renovated sky bridges linking the complex (bottom). Image courtesy of Brookfield Partners / Gensler.

In press release announcing the update to the 1.85 million-square-foot project, the developers write that a top-to-bottom overhaul of a 600,000-square-foot, 13-story building contained within the complex has been completed. The overhaul, which is designed by Gensler, will reposition the four-building, block-sized complex into a social and business node for fashion and technology companies. The complex was originally designed in the 1960s as a hub for clothing manufacturer based in Downtown Los A...

Steel frame of OMA's Audrey Irmas Pavilion for Wilshire Boulevard Temple tops out

2019-08-01T14:35:00-04:00

After breaking ground last November, the steel frame of the $75-million Audrey Irmas Pavilion has quickly taken shape in Koreatown. Located at the corner of Wilshire and Harvard Boulevard, the expansion to the Wilshire Boulevard Temple will house cultural, religious and community events. The three-story, 55,000-square-foot structure will consist of a chapel and terrace, a grand ballroom, a catering kitchen, meeting rooms, performance spaces and a rooftop sky garden.

The OMA/Shohei Shigematsu-designed Wilshire Boulevard Temple expansion in Los Angeles recently celebrated the topping out of its steel structure.

Conceptual model. Image courtesy of OMA New York

On its website, OMA explains that the "structural frame, weighing about 700 tons, is composed of steel beams and columns with buckling restrained braces to resist earthquake loads. The steel framing is designed economically to resist its own weight under gravity, with three sloped elevations. The long transfer girders supporting the upper level columns will accommodate an open, clear-span ground floor event space."

View of the historic 1929 temple building with the new Audrey Irmas Pavilion from across Wilshire Boulevard. Image courtesy of OMA New York

OMA's collaborators on the Audrey Irmas Pavilion project are executive architect Gruen Associates, landscape architect Studio-MLA, and engineers Arup. Completion is scheduled for late 2020.

To get a clearer picture of the current progress, head...

César Pelli has passed away

2019-07-19T23:57:00-04:00

Argentina’s Telam state news agency reported his passing on Friday, as did the governor of Tucuman province, where Pelli grew up and spent his formative years. “With much regret we receive the sad news of the death of the great Architect César Pelli,” the region’s governor, Juan Manzur, said in a post on Twitter. “I want to convey my condolences to his whole family, his friends and his team.”

César Pelli, a prolific and relentlessly inventive architect who has shaped the skylines of major cities from Los Angeles to San Francisco, New York City, and Kuala Lumpur, has passed away at age 92.

News of Pelli’s death came from Argentina’s state news service Friday afternoon, according to Reuters.

MAD's quirky Beverly Hills 'Gardenhouse' tops out

2018-07-05T18:33:00-04:00

MAD Architects, headquartered in Beijing, is making progress on its first U.S. project, Gardenhouse in Beverly Hills (first announced on Archinect in 2015). The playful 18-unit residential project along Wilshire Boulevard just topped out and aims for completion before the end of the year—then expected to sport an enormous wrap-around outdoor living wall facade with native, drought-tolerant succulents and vines.

Image: MAD Architects

"The 'hillside village' offers a variety of different housing typologies – three townhouses, two studios, five villas and eight condominiums – that are arranged to cultivate a private neighborhood feeling in the middle of the city," reads the project description.

Image: MAD Architects

"Individual balconies and patios extend out over an inner courtyard that allows villa residents to at once, enjoy the nature and independence from neighbors. There is also a balance between public and private as the housing appears opaque from the street but reveals a transp...

Gruen Associates, Mia Lehrer, Oyler Wu appointed to design L.A. River Greenway in San Fernando Valley

2016-07-20T20:27:00-04:00

Mayor Eric Garcetti's office released a statement yesterday announcing that Gruen Associates, Mia Lehrer + Associates, Oyler Wu Collaborative, and civil and structural engineering firm Psomas will design the final 12 miles of the San Fernando Valley portion of the Los Angeles River Greenway. The Greenway would allow Angelenos to walk or bike from Canoga Park to Elysian Valley.

No project renderings for now, as the designers will begin conducting a feasibility study over the next nine months. According to the press release, the Greenway “will address important objectives” in both the City’s/Frank Gehry's (still yet to be revealed) Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan as well as L.A. County’s River Master Plan, their Bicycle Plans, and Mayor Garcetti's Sustainable City pLAn.

The mayor and County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl will jointly fund the project, along with additional support from City Councilmembers Bob Blumenfield, Paul Krekorian, Nury Martinez and David Ryu, and the Depart...

Grimshaw + Gruen's L.A. Union Station Master Plan approved for implementation

2014-10-28T13:20:00-04:00

The L.A. Metro Board of Directors officially approved the Los Angeles Union Station Master Plan in downtown L.A. to advance from planning to implementation. For the past two years, Metro has worked with a consultant team led by Grimshaw Architects and Gruen Associates to expand the iconic station, which is registered as a national historical landmark. Since Union Station opened in 1939, ridership continues to approach 110,000 trips per day and is expected to increase up to nearly 197,000 per day by 2040. L.A. Metro purchased the station in 2011.

The master plan development program consists of 3.25 million sq. feet of the Union Station property. The plan includes the preservation of the historic station, renovations to the station's perimeter, and adding new commercial developments like retail, hotel, and housing.

With today's approval, Metro can begin its initial implementation strategy for near-term projects, which includes a programmatic environmental review of the recommended trans...

Grimshaw/Gruen’s 17-hectare L.A. Union Station Master Plan approved to begin final phase

2014-01-09T12:52:00-05:00

Since Gruen Associates and Grimshaw Architects were approved in 2012 to create the L.A. Union Station Master Plan, the leading designers and their team recently got the green light from the L.A. Metro to begin the plan's third and final phase. Preserving the station's iconic nature and enhancing its surrounding 17 hectares to address the city's most pressing needs in the future, the proposal is set for completion in Summer 2014.

Images via Grimshaw Architects

Previously: Los Angeles Metro Approves Gruen/Grimshaw for Union Station Master Plan