Samitaur Tower – Culver City, California

The Samitaur Tower is an information tower, constructed at the corner of Hayden Avenue and National Boulevard immediately across from the new Expo light rail line arriving from downtown Los Angeles in June, 2011. That intersection is the primary entry point into the re-developed zone of Culver City.

• Architect: Eric Owen Moss Architects
• Location: Culver City, California
• Structure: Standard structural steel sections
• Project Area / Construction Area: Los Angeles
• Project Year: 2011

North View

Conceptually, the tower has both introverted and extroverted planning objectives. Internal to the burgeoning site area of new media companies, graphic designers, and general office tenants, the tower will symbolize the advent of this important new urban development, provide a changing art display for local viewing, and offer a variety of graphic content and data on its five screens concerning coming events and current achievements of the tenants who occupy that part of the city.

Aerial Diagram

The tower consists of five circular steel rings, approximately 30 feet in diameter. The rings are stacked vertically at 12 foot floor-to-floor intervals, and, as the height increases, the rings are staggered in plan, back and forth – to the north, east, south, and west – in order to establish proximity and viewing angles for various levels at various heights. Projection screens at each floor are to be seen from cars on surrounding surface streets, from freeways, by passengers at train stops, from on-board the moving trains, and from area pedestrians at a variety of key walking and viewing points. Between each pair of staggered horizontal circular steel planes, the curving, conical projection screens are installed. Behind the screens, hung from the tower floors are a number of digital projectors, 10 in all, that will rear-project onto the translucent acrylic screens.

Inside the screens, steel decks are provided for viewers to look out at the city, and for a maintenance staff who will service the projectors and screens.

South Arieal View

There are several target audiences that account for the positioning of the five screens. First is the traffic on the Santa Monica Freeway, several blocks to the north, one of the most highly trafficked freeway routes in Los Angeles. Second, the intersection of La Cienega Boulevard and Jefferson Boulevard, several blocks from the site, another of the highly trafficked intersections in the city, and the location of the primary new, elevated train stop. Third is the corner of Hayden and National itself, adjacent to the project, which is also a signaled, highly trafficked east-west route. Finally, there is one screen, just above grade level, that, unlike the other four, faces the re-development site. That screen will be used by local audiences, seated on the terraced concrete bleachers that step down to the below grade portion of the project where a stage for speakers and performers is provided.

The tower is fabricated from standard structural steel sections – wide flange beams and columns, and channels – with panelized walls made of ½ inch thick steel plate. All the shapes and components were shop fabricated, and delivered to the site for erection. Because of earthquake design constraints, the tower is supported on a deep foundation of concrete piles with a continuous grade beam tying the piles together.

Sequence of the build

Tags: 2011, Information Tower, Los Angeles, Samitaur Tower

Category: Information Tower

This entry was posted on Friday, January 14th, 2011 at 9:44 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.