The Vertical Ocean is a hybrid marine research facility located at the San Pedro Waterfront in Los Angeles California. In the most functional aspect, the project is an effort to turn the the waterfront into a more public based area by providing cleaner waters. The project as a whole will be an identity to the waterfront through its main architecture feature, the algae facade. The building holds a complex system that starts at its core and to the facade carrying the algae growing process. In essence The Vertical Ocean adopts the concept of a machine that literally executes a mechanical function, but at the same time, the outcome of the system becomes a visual entertainment for the entire waterfront that changes as time pass capturing the process of algae.