Maximiliano is an Italian restaurant and pizzeria for chef Andre Guerrero that opened in October 2011 in Los Angeles. The 2,200 sf tenant improvement is atmospherically distinct; a unique triangular dining area infused with color and evocative of the rich and refined menu. A large mural on the large south wall creates a strong graphic and spatial identity, evoking the rhythmic yet varied shapes of Guerrero’s handmade pastas. The rhythm of embossed white stripes shifts from evenly parallel at the ceiling to randomly wavy at the seats, giving a gravitational weight to the wall and infusing the space with vibrant color and pattern. Descending over a door to the patio is a deep porous soffit that undulates over the bar, filtering natural and artificial light and housing the restaurants wine collection. The brightly painted slats animate the space with local and varied color intensities creating 3d optical effects as the viewer moves that recall the visual instability of 1970’s Op Art.
Located on a tight infill site within the premier 1,000 acre master-planned Warner Center mixed-use district, one of Los Angeles’ largest concentrations of residential and commercial space, Ascent introduces a new residential model to the region — the apartment style condo. While square footages in the 191-unit community average 1,056 square feet, there are units as compact as 640 square feet.
Every year in early September, as graduate students at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in Los Angeles put the finishing touches on their thesis projects, a Sci-Arc faculty member and students prepare a temporary pavilion for the annual graduation ceremony. This year, faculty members Dwayne Oyler and Jenny Wu of Oyler Wu Collaborative, along with their students, designed a pavilion entitled Netscape for the event that stretches across the northern end of the SCI-Arc parking lot, providing seating for 900. Consisting of 45,000 linear feet of knitted rope, 6000 linear feet of tube steel, and 3000 square feet of fabric shade louvers, the pavilion creates a sail-like canopy of rope and fabric that floats above the audience. With its fabric louvers tilted toward the western sky, the canopy is designed to provide shade for the specific date and time.
Project Team, Oyler Wu Collaborative: Nick Aho, Chris Eskew, Matt Evans, Andy Hammer, Michael Ho, Richard Lucero, Sanjay Sukie, Yaohua Wang
Project Team, SCI-Arc: Jacob Aboudou, Casey Benito, Paul Cambon, Julian Daly, Hung Diep, Jesus Guerrero, Clifford Ho, Duygun Inal, Mina Jun, David Kim, Noorey Kim, Jacques Lesec, Zachery Main, Tyler McMartin, Richard Nam, Kevin Nguyen, Manuel Oh, Carlos Rodriquez, Bryant Suh, Kyle von Hasseln, Liz von Hasseln, Jie Yang
I put 25000 of wooden sticks, which was shaped like drum stick on the ceiling. In order to increase a reality of clouds, I calculate the focal length between eye line and wooden sticks and use that length for the stick length. Also I made difference on the distance between stick each other so that to make a stereoscopic effect to wooden cloud.
This project is the design of a 2, 400 square foot residence for a young couple, an artist and an arts administrator, in the Glassell Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Their requirements included an open living/dining/kitchen space, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and a studio space.
The 1340 Figueroa Street residential development is a multifaceted composition developed within the current fabric of downtown Los Angeles. The development strikes a balance between the tall buildings of downtown and the large scale civic complexes like the neighboring Convention Center and the Staples Center. The location of the site, at the southern end of the high rise downtown district, allows the tower to create a visible marker, contributing to a new skyline for the City of Los Angeles. Studio Daniel Libeskind is working with CA Human Technologies on the project.
Neighbor to the Hollywood landmark Cinerama Dome, Sunset Vine Tower is a conversion of a 22-story office building into a 63-unit apartment building. This adaptive reuse project stands atop street-level retail. As the tallest building in Hollywood, Sunset Vine Tower’s Modern design creates a dynamic exclamation point in the mostly traditional fabric of the Hollywood residential renaissance.
Cherokee Mixed-Use Lofts is an urban infill, mixed-use, market-rate housing project. The building is inspired by the series of paintings by the British artist Patrick Hughes titled, “Perspectivity”, whose paintings appear to be ever changing and physically moving while being viewed. At Cherokee the main architectural feature of this project is the building’s owner-controlled operable double façade system. By allowing the occupant to adjust, at will, the operable screens of the building façade, the facade is virtually redesigned “live” from within the space, reflecting the occupants of the building within, in real time. The screens also enhance the existing streetscape and promote a lively pedestrian environment. By visually breaking up the façade into smaller articulated moving elements, the building appears to move with the passing cars and people. In effect, it becomes a live canvas to be painted upon daily or more often. Like many features of the building, the façade is multivalent and rich with meaning performing several roles for formal, functional and experiential effect.
Front View (Images Courtesy John Edward Linden and Tara Wujcik)
This project is for a new single family residence located in the Mt. Washington hills of Los Angeles. The property is a small (3,600 s.f.) descending lot with an approximately 2:1 slope facing slightly southwest and within the upper portion of a ravine. Diagonally to the west is a view of downtown and directly across lie a scattered array of houses on a similar slope. The area is characterized by tight winding streets with an eclectic range of houses fronting directly on them. Most of the structures are direct manifestations of the complicated zoning laws that govern the area; maximizing height restrictions, uncovered decks that extend 5 feet beyond the envelope, skirts that extend all the way to the ground, etc. This results in a typology that seems more appropriate for the flats of L.A. and clearly signals the end of the possibility of the case-study experiments not so long ago.
This project is a display case for a record collection. Vinyl albums have somewhat of a retro/cult status within contemporary culture that is generated from the unique sound it produces as well as the cover art that defines the packaging. The display case is designed in order to frame the collection and heighten its status as a cultural artifact within the domestic setting.
email
Facebook
Twitter
RSS Feed
