Archinect - News

SCI-Arc founding director Ray Kappe’s first Los Angeles area home hits the market in Glendale

2022-08-26T14:33:00-04:00

A historically significant mid-century modern home designed by SCI-Arc founding director Ray Kappe has hit the market in Glendale, California, for an asking price of just under $2.2 million.

The Pasadena Star is reporting the recent listing of Kappe’s Goetschel House, a 1954 commission that was recently restored to reflect its original design by HabHouse owner Andreas E.G. Larsson. Thanks to an archive of Kappe’s drawings and sketches for the home kept at the Getty Research Institute, Larsson hastened a yearlong renovation that added new elements such as a pergola and an outdoor shower to the property, which had been partly demolished. At the end of the restoration, the home had appreciated in value by nearly seven figures over the original sale price of $1.33 million.

Image: Cameron Carothers courtesy Unique California Property

The residence was the first designed ...

The long-awaited Armenian American Museum is breaking ground on July 11

2021-07-07T21:00:00-04:00

The backers behind the long-proposed Armenian American Museum will hold a ceremonial groundbreaking for the project on July 11 in Downtown Glendale.

In the works for more than seven years, the Armenian American Museum and Cultural Center of California will be two stories and approximately 50,800 square feet with features including permanent and temporary exhibition galleries, an auditorium, kitchen, gift shop, learning center, and administrative offices.

Glendale-based Alajajian Marcoosi Architects is designing the museum, whose noted façade design is modeled after rock formations seen in the Armenian Highlands.

Previously on Archinect: Design for Armenian American Museum in Glendale unveiled

In 2018, the Glendale City Council greenlit the design of the museum and approved a one-dollar-per-year ground lease agreement at the city-owned Glendale Central Park. The initial term of the lease is for 55 years, with the option to extend up to 95 years.

Funding of the museum has come from various sources including grants and contributions secured from a $14 million Groundbreaking Campaign, $8 million from the State of California, and $...

More details on Glendale's "freeway cap park" emerge

2016-03-08T19:11:00-05:00

Space 134, the city's $150-million plan to build 24 acres of park space atop a trenched stretch of the 134 Freeway [is] slated for a .7 mile stretch between Central and Balboa Avenues, [and] would span from the city's Downtown district to adjacent residential neighborhoods to the east. Glendale officials have trumpeted the project's potential to improve public health, reduce pollution and strengthen transit connections to the rest of [L.A.] County.

More about L.A. parks:

A critical look at Downtown L.A.'s ambitious plans for two new public parks

Take a look at these bold visions for Downtown LA's next park

Pershing Square Renew competition narrows down to four finalist teams

Largest wildlife overpass in U.S. proposed for L.A.'s 101 Freeway, could ease area's roadkill problem

Curating the City: urban designer Alan Loomis on Archinect Sessions One-to-One #12

2016-02-22T18:20:00-05:00

As Deputy Director for Urban Design and Mobility in Glendale, CA, a teacher of urban design at Woodbury University, and one of the Mayor's appointees on the City of Pasadena's Design Commission, Alan Loomis has thoroughly installed himself in the shifting scene of southern Californian urbanism. After moving from Michigan to get his MArch at SCI-Arc in the late 1990s, Loomis has seen enough of Los Angeles' urbanism to be convinced that whatever post-sprawl paradigm gets adopted here will become the guidebook for many more cities in the US, particularly those ever-expanding desert cities in the southwest.

Loomis joined me in Archinect's studio to talk about urban design in the public and private realms, pedagogical approaches to urban design vs. urban planning, and his earlier days in LA as an Archinect editor.

Listen to One-to-One #12 with Alan Loomis:

iTunes: Click here to listen and subscribe to the new "Archinect Sessions One-to-One" podcast
SoundCloud: click here to follow Archinect
R...

Design for Armenian American Museum in Glendale unveiled

2015-12-17T13:21:00-05:00

The Armenian American Museum unveiled its conceptual design at the Glendale City Council meeting on Tuesday, December 8, 2015. [...] The Armenian American Museum concept designed by Alajajian Marcoosi Architects will include exhibitions space, resource center, a performing arts theater, and classrooms. [...] The 1.7 acre property on the corner of Verdugo Road and Mountain Street will also serve as the location for a memorial to the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

For more information about the project, head over to the Armenian American Museum website.

Picture of the Week

2014-11-16T01:06:00-05:00

Hacker Urbanism! Friday night in front of the Glendale City Hall, Courthouse and the Police Department, GPD.