A year after breaking ground at 5790 W. Jefferson Boulevard, the arrival of a tower crane signals that construction is ramping up at the Eric Owen Moss-designed Wrapper development.
The project, located just west of Metro's La Cienega/Jefferson Station, is being developed by Samitaur Constructs - the local real estate investment firm behind a slew of abstract office complexes in Culver City's Hayden Tract.
— Urbanize LA
The exoskeleton wrapping the 17-story tower like giant rubber bands enables the interior spaces to be column-free, some even with double-height ceilings, reports Urbanize LA.
Expected to be a key anchor building near LA's La Cienega/Jefferson Metro Station, the 180,548-square-foot (W)RAPPER tower is only a stone's throw away from other Eric Owen Moss-designed developments, like Hayden Tract, Pterodactyl Office, Gateway/Samitaur Tower, and the award-winning restaurant Vespertine in nearby Culver City.
This is a breathtakingly boring site. Literally. I'm choking.
Not that different from much of process America, commercial whatever, where there is no architectural heritage, no past, no distinctive culture, not even any sense of a future. There is no reason to think the trend will change, except that these developments will grow larger, and one process will be replaced with another without leaving a mark.
A restrained, tasteful glass box—what else could you get?—would wither in the sterility and/or stand stranded in this vacuum, out of place, without context. Out of context because there is no context.
Perhaps a comprehensive master plan for the whole area, architecturally inspired, could reform the area, but those buildings still would have nothing to draw on. They'd have to start from scratch. But because of rapid expansion, our speculative economy, our individualistic, non-politics politics, such a plan will never never happen. Also true inspiration seems to be in short supply.
That said, I kind of like this. It doesn't make a statement—there is no statement to be made—but at least it shakes things up and breaks monotony, maybe the best we can hope for. At any rate, this is where we are.
The same goes for all the sterile—or wild—expensive urban residential high rises we're seeing now. We're not going to improve architecture until we reform the society, the culture, and ground ourselves in—something.
I hated this when I first saw it on twitter (the first picture in this post) but now that I've watched the fly-through I dig it. The column-free interiors are cool, and I love an exterior stair that changes vista as you walk it!
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Is that structural at all?
From the blurb above: "The exoskeleton wrapping the 17-story tower like giant rubber bands enables the interior spaces to be column-free, some even with double-height ceilings, reports Urbanize LA."
My bad! Good to know it actually servers a function.
ornament is crime
I would have used a giant roll of duct tape.
Or long strings of phlegm.
Very appropriate they do a fly over to show the building as the pedestrian experience looks absolutely abysmal. Buildings like these will never add up to a cohesive urban environment worth walking around, but hey, it's cool.
I miss when Frank Gehry was the bad guy.... at least his architecture was all in
This is a breathtakingly boring site. Literally. I'm choking.
Not that different from much of process America, commercial whatever, where there is no architectural heritage, no past, no distinctive culture, not even any sense of a future. There is no reason to think the trend will change, except that these developments will grow larger, and one process will be replaced with another without leaving a mark.
A restrained, tasteful glass box—what else could you get?—would wither in the sterility and/or stand stranded in this vacuum, out of place, without context. Out of context because there is no context.
Perhaps a comprehensive master plan for the whole area, architecturally inspired, could reform the area, but those buildings still would have nothing to draw on. They'd have to start from scratch. But because of rapid expansion, our speculative economy, our individualistic, non-politics politics, such a plan will never never happen. Also true inspiration seems to be in short supply.
That said, I kind of like this. It doesn't make a statement—there is no statement to be made—but at least it shakes things up and breaks monotony, maybe the best we can hope for. At any rate, this is where we are.
The same goes for all the sterile—or wild—expensive urban residential high rises we're seeing now. We're not going to improve architecture until we reform the society, the culture, and ground ourselves in—something.
I think you're missing the extent of Moss' work in the Hayden tract immediately surrounding this tower.
https://www.metropolismag.com/architecture/eric-owen-moss-architect-catalyzing-rebirth-culver-city/
http://ericowenmoss.com/project-detail/the-new-city/
i like the building- but it would suck to have a view directly facing the exoskeleton.
if you don’t have the vision or skill to make the functional attractive just slap some silly shit on it and hope nobody notices.
The Emperor’s new clothes.
The fact that this man was the Head of an Architectural institution says a lot about the profession.
Gotta love the interior details.
Just wondering what’s holding up those I beams ...
This has been happening for a while...like the Fox news buildup that's gotten us in this pickle with his highness. Venturi's decorated shed.
I hated this when I first saw it on twitter (the first picture in this post) but now that I've watched the fly-through I dig it. The column-free interiors are cool, and I love an exterior stair that changes vista as you walk it!
Column free interiors are great. The exterior and how it looks like someone scribbled because they just couldn't design something attractive. Not sure that will still excite the mind in 20 years, no less 20 minutes. But is that jumble really the structure? If so, I'm sure they would have 'celebrated' that in the video. Feels like H&M architecture.
The notion that a column-free interior depends on having a fettuccine-splatter peripheral structure is silly.
Also, a common whine of mine: how about a plan and section? Animations and renderings are great, but facile. They should supplement actual architectural drawings.
Architectural drawings don't do much for people outside of the profession (that includes consultants and builders). As such, they don't appear in the marketing materials.
Bingo. The video is pure marketing. But Archinect, it's rumored, is an architectural platform. (This complaint is about most of the stories here, not just Linguine Plaza there in the Hayden Tract.)
It's tough to post elements that aren't supplied. I'm no Pollyanna when it comes to Archinect, but I think it's a big ask to want them to get drawings that aren't supplied with the press releases.
(but I'd love it if they did)
Agreed to both. Maybe this is a practitioner shortcoming, if nobody's designing in plan and section anymore, just in animation.
I'm not sure if it's a shortcoming per se. I'm always complaining about older colleagues of mine demanding more information in a building section than is necessary. If the project can be built without drawing flashing at 1/16" scale section, then why draw the section? If it's a road map to details, great, but the extra work that often gets put in just to make them extra pretty cuts into my 401k donation at the end of the year.
I'll go out on a limb and opine that a building section showing floors and structure, floor-to-floor heights, roof line/form, walls/facade, vertical circulation and major systems at, say, 1/4"=1'-0" is a fundamental part of architectural design. Not just illustration, but design, just like a plan but in the other axis.
This is often where larger-sized details (for flashing and other items) are keyed, yes. But that's not what building sections are for.
And go ahead and skip that flashing detail, but you may need to rehire the animator to include the water from the roof leak dripping into a bucket in the middle of the open office-- or maybe into the office dog's water bowl? :o]
I dunno, building sections are an important part of design, sure, but does the contractor need something that doesn't show anything of consequence other than which sheet to go to to see the details needed to actually build the thing? This is where BIM shines, to get you a design tool (the section) that doesn't require person-hours to generate.
A more conventional building probably would never have made it to Archinect news or elsewhere, thus we wouldn't be having this discussion. But if it had, I suspect most here would say it was boring.
We keep getting stuck with boring vs wow (or yuck). Something new for the sake of being new doesn't work, but neither does something traditional for the sake of being traditional. It's beyond my means, but someone needs to analyze the cultural influences the building picks up, such as they are, the assumptions it makes about architecture. Once more, there's almost nothing to work with in the former, and that's what the building comes to terms with.
Another way to approach the building is to assess the music in the video above, what's behind it, then see how well it fits the building. And I'd say the music fits it perfectly.
You have to see the whole thing. It's more complex than a frontal shot might suggest. And I like this complexity, and the variation at the back. And I like the way it challenges our notions of support, containment, and connection. There's a metaphor here that might work for what this is—a commercial structure for whatever.
I hate the music, btw.
I like the music, but those curly cues are not structural, if you look at the video. Applied decoration whatever... it's not "historic" so it's cool, until the media needs the next hit of banality packaged as originality.
This urge to be seen as an original genius get's us these stupid buildings that always compete for attention rather than building up a whole that people might actually enjoy. And if you suggest they are not original, they get a bit upset.
https://archinect.com/features/article/150174217/neil-denari-on-balancing-practice-teaching-and-experimental-design
It fits right in with all the other prickly buildings in that district. It's a sort of dystopian industrial hipster fantasy land.
btw: (W)RAPPER (????). Oh, I get it....I think.
The link above:
http://wrappertower.com
does at least provide floor plans. Pictures from his site better show the structure:
Click to enlarge and see how the floors are held, how much they are suspended in air, seemingly by little. I assume renderings show essential structural members. The building is largely supported at four points, the rear part, above, and the stair construction on the right, both of which I assume are heavily reinforced.
The picture that begins Alexander's post. The complex interchanges in the middle of the front and the whole right side provide, in unison, the other two main supports. Imagine large, straight beams instead. Texturing the fettuccine disguises their essential function and makes them look like ornament. Form doesn't follow function. Rather structural function throughout is dispersed and hidden. Curving the right side is a nice touch that enhances the tension implied in the wrapping.
I have to admit I'm skeptical how substantial the building is, especially in the land of earthquakes, but I'm not an engineer. Any precedent here? I assume they have ways of testing and confirming. I'm really curious.
Obviously Moss is playing with our sense of structure and stability, providing the unexpected and unpredictable, stretching—enlarging?—our sense of what is possible. Either he's just screwing around, or the building fits our zeitgeist. Or both. I'm guessing the building will be a hit, that it will draw clients. I'm also guessing it will take something sensational to get development of the area going.
You can't do much nowadays without shaking us up and getting our attention. We live in an age of boredom and risk. One feeds the other. You have to wonder where this will end, but it's exciting, right?
Given context, the alternatives, I like this more and more.
Hey, leasing plans are a good start. And there's a schematic section, too. Both illustrate the importance of this 2D information -- and not just for us architects, but for tenants, too. Thanks for posting the link.
The exoskeleton provides support so interior columns are not needed? The Florida International University pedestrian bridge collapse shows what can happen if the sums aren't right when you are determined to complicate the simple.
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Animation, renderings, visualization Done by Zimmerman Visual. #TheCreditRevolution
At first glance it looks unreal but after watching the movie it made more sense. Looking at the scale of the city and Los Angeles in the background. LA needs more transportation related development like this, maybe not as crazy looking.
hianal
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