Los Angeles: The Latest Architecture and News

Project Umbrella by architects Constantin Boincean, Ralph Bertram and Aleksandra Danielak has been awarded first place in the LA Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition, presented by SCI-Arc and Architect’s Newspaper in partnership with the Office of the Mayor of Los Angeles, the Community Redevelopment Agency, along with other public and private sponsors.

More images and descriptions after the break.

The 32,000 sqf Los Angeles’ Holocaust Museum, designed by Belzberg Architects, has just opened. Sitting across from the Holocaust Memorial, the museum is the new face of the LAMH, the United States’ oldest holocaust museum which dates back to 1962. To the unknowing passerby, one may not even notice the museum as Belzberg has decided to bury the museum underground – a move that not only preserves the parkland above but also creates a dynamic circulation route bringing people beneath the earth to remember those who experienced the Holocaust.

More images and more about the museum after the break.

The Architecture and Design Museum, Los Angeles and Kanner Architects (see their projects here) present a retrospective and official public memorial service for Stephen Kanner, FAIA, on November 4, 2010, from 7-10 pm. The show continues until Jan 16, 2011.

With his passing on July 2, after a short battle with pancreatic cancer, the Los Angeles architectural and design community loses one of its most prominent advocates. A thirdgeneration architect and principal of Kanner Architects, Stephen was a native Angelino known for his reinterpretation of Southern Californian modernism and for his unique imprint on LA’s urban landscape.

His contributions to the Los Angeles built environment reach from Santa Monica to East Los Angeles, as his firm completed more than 150 projects throughout the city. In addition, Kanner earned national and international stature with residential projects across the US and, most notably, PUMA retail stores worldwide.

Full press release after the break.

Back in May, when American philanthropist, Eli Broad, announced his plans to build a new museum in downtown Los Angeles, six invited top architects competed for the commission ( Rem Koolhaas, Herzog and de Meuron, Christian de Portzamparc, Ryue Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sejima, Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Foreign Office Architects). Yesterday, Broad confirmed that Diller Scofidio + Renfro (one of just two invited firms who have not been awarded the Pritzker) will design the 120,000 sqf downtown museum.

The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) and The Architect’s Newspaper are today launching the Los Angeles Clean Tech Corridor and Green District Competition. The competition asks architects, landscape architects, designers, engineers, urban planners, students and environmental professionals to create an innovative urban vision for Los Angeles’ CleanTech Corridor, a several-mile-long development zone on the eastern edge of downtown LA.

Using 4,000 paper cups and 15,000 staples, APHIoIDEA’s newest installation is gracefully suspended from the ceiling, creating a new spatial experience in previously un-utilized storefronts. The architectural installation is part of PHANTOM GALLERIES, an organization that places temporary installations in vacant storefront windows throughout LA to instantly form a new public art gallery.

A video, more images/diagrams and more about the installation after the break.

We are thrilled to announce that Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects (LOHA) will be receiving the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles Chapter’s (AIA|LA), Firm of the Year Award for 2010. The formal announcement is expected to be released in July. The AIA|LA Firm of the Year Award is given annually and recognizes a practice that consistently has produced distinguished architecture.

de LaB is proud to announce their first-ever fundraiser, City Listening II! On Saturday, June 26, de LaB and a fantastic roster of collaborators and sponsors will present an evening of stories about Los Angeles read by your favorite design, architecture and art writers from both sides of La Brea!

Eli Broad, an American philanthropist, is getting ready to design the newest home for his extensive art collection. For his latest museum project, on the corner of Grand Avenue and 2nd Street in Los Angeles, Broad invited six of the professions’ leading minds to compete. Resting across the street from Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall and Arata Isozaki’s 1986 Museum of Contemporary Art, Broad’s museum with include approximately 40,000 square feet of top-floor exhibition space, along with offices for the Broad Art Foundation.

INABA, with Darien Williams, has developed a hypothetical proposal for the migratory distribution of the Hollywood sign across Los Angeles, titled “HLYWD”. The project will be on display as part of SUPERFRONT LA‘s upcoming show, UNPLANNED: Research and Experiments at the Urban Scale.

The proposal will be on display until July 2. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Designed by Aedas Sport, the innovative 75,000-seat stadium will be the first LEED-certified building in the NFL and will capture the luxury and drama of the world’s entertainment capital. The project anticipates completion for the 2013 season. Both the NFL and the client, Majestic Realty, are committed to making a progressive statement with this building and are exploring a number of initiatives that will make this the most environmentally progressive stadium in the U.S. Aedas Sport has employed the unique topography of the site to build the stadium into a hillside, reducing the steel structure by 40% and allowing at least two-thirds of the seating bowl to be built on grade.

More images and full architect’s description after the break.

wHY Architecture has shown us their expertise on cultural projects at different scales: the Grand Rapids Art Museum (the first LEED Gold certified museum) on the large scale in one side and the Royal/T Gallery on a smaller scale, among other cultural projects shown on their website.

And now they share with us a cultural project on the infrastructure scale that I had the chance to see when I visited their office early this year, which got green light and enters construction phase in 2010: the Art Bridge.

The project is located over the Los Angeles river and it’s very related to it, as most of its structure will be built from trash salvaged from the river itself. This project will achieve what many have been looking for, and that is to reconnect with the river that crosses LA. And I think that it will make it.

You can also watch our interview with Yo-ichiro Hakomori from whY Architecture, filmed at Postopolis! LA earlier this year.

Project description and more images after the break: