Archinect - News

Montalba is making over Edward Durell Stone's iconic 9720 Wilshire building

2021-11-02T13:56:00-04:00

A Beverly Hills icon is getting a long overdue facelift thanks to a top-notch local firm.

Santa Monica-based Montalba Architects is behind a newly announced renovation that will transform the former Pacific Mercantile Bank building, an eight-story office tower on Wilshire Boulevard by New Formalist master Edward Durell Stone.

Image courtesy Montalba Architects

Stone was the architect of the Ahmanson Center and responsible for several other midcentury commercial developments on Wilshire Boulevard that have become synonymous with the visual landscape of Los Angeles thanks to artists like Ed Ruscha and David Hockney.

Image courtesy Montalba Architects

The building’s characteristic Romanesque facade will remain untouched as the fronting fountain and plaza area are reimagined in order to make space for a “sunken garden” that allows the architects to activate its previously unused basement substructure. Interior renovations will be made using a “reserved palette of materials that harken th...

Beyer Blinder Belle renovates mid-century modern landmark church in Washington, D.C.

2021-11-01T17:17:00-04:00

New York-based architecture practice Beyer Blinder Belle (BBB) is known for projects that focus on the "planning, restoration, and the design of new buildings." Their latest project for the National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., focuses on expanding and renovating one of D.C.'s historic mid-century modern church sites.

Designed by American architect Harold E. Wagoner in 1967, BBB continued with its 2016 master plan for the Church by designing two additions that offer new meeting rooms and added public space for members. According to firm Partner Hany Hassan, FAIA: "Our work introduces a contemporary entry and new central staircase, expressive and open in design, to draw people through all three levels of the Church."

The new buil...