Impressive Shortlist at New UC Davis Art Museum
Henning Larsen designed the National Museum of Norway. Will they design UC-Davis’ new art museum? (Courtesy Henning Larsen)
Three design-build teams have been shortlisted to design the $30 million Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at the University of California, Davis. They are: WORKac and Westlake Reed Leskosky with Kitchell; Henning Larsen Architects and Gould Evans with Oliver and Co; and SO–IL and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson with Whiting-Turner. Each team had four months to prepare a bid for the museum. The museum will be named after Jan Shrem, operator of Clos Pegase winery in the Napa Valley, and his wife Maria Manetti Shrem.
Voters Approve Streetcars Tax Measure in Downtown Los Angeles
Return of the historic Red Car? (Courtesy Metro Transportation Library)
This week, Los Angeles voters approved a local tax on downtown landowners to help pay for a downtown streetcar, which could begin running as early as 2016. The $125 million project would—yes—run on tracks, just like the streetcars that used to dominate the city.
Cars haven’t been chosen yet, but their primary route would go south on Broadway from 1st Street to 11th Street, west to Figueroa Street, north to 7th Street, east to Hill Street, and north, terminating at 1st Street. LA’s transportation agency, Metro, began work on the project in 2011 with the city’s former Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA/LA), with the city itself, and with Los Angeles Streetcar, Inc.
After the votes were counted, 73 percent of downtown voters approved the measure. Now the project needs to get federal approval before officially moving ahead. See more images of the historic Pacific Electric streetcars, which once dominated the city, below.
Video> Greg Lynn’s House of the Future Radically Redefines “Mobile Home”
At the recent Interieur 2012 Biennale in Kortrijk, Belgium, Venice, California-based Greg Lynn shared his vision of the future of housing: architecture that rotates to accommodate different uses. The model above, called “RV Prototype” (RV stands for Room Vehicle), part of the Biennale’s Future Primitives exhibition program exploring our future living environment, rotates via a robotic stepper drive and consists of a super-lightweight structure built with a carbon shell lined with a foam core.
As its name suggests, the proposal is just a scale prototype, but if enlarged and tricked out, Lynn argues it could contain living spaces on one side and a kitchen or bedroom on another, for example. All you have to do is spin. The device is now on a boat returning to Los Angeles from Belgium. We’ll let you know when the future arrives—and where to store your forks and pillow when they’re upside down.
Tuesday! Discuss Downtown LA’s Resurgence at the A+D Museum
Student rendering of a re-thought MOCA, from Grand Illusion. (USC)
As we’ve reported quite a bit, downtown LA is seeing a formidable resurgence. An equally formidable panel will meet at LA’s A+D Museum on Tuesday to debate the phenomenon, looking at the architectural development of Grand Avenue, adaptive reuse in the historic corridor, hip emergence and clean tech in the arts district, and so on.
Panelists include architect Michael Maltzan; AN West Coast Editor Sam Lubell; KCRW’s Frances Anderton; Ayahlushim Getachew, Senior Vice President at Thomas Properties Group; Bob Hale, Principal at Rios Clementi Hale Studios; and Carol Schatz, President and CEO of Downtown Center Business Improvement District and the Central City Association. The event will also include a signing of Anderton’s illuminating new book on Grand Avenue, Grand Illusion.
Saved? Gehry’s LA Aerospace Hall Gets Listing on California Register
Frank Gehry’s Air and Space Gallery. (Guggenheim Museum Publications)
AN found out today that Frank Gehry’s Aerospace Hall at the California Science Center (now known as the Air and Space Gallery) in Los Angeles has now been listed on the California Register by the California Office of Historic Preservation. As we’ve reported, the museum’s fate has been in doubt as the Science Center makes plans for a new building to house the Space Shuttle Endeavor, and refuses to comment on what it plans to do with Gehry’s building, which was shuttered last year.
The listing doesn’t guarantee the building’s protection, but it could slow down any threats. It may trigger an environmental review if another building were to replace it. At the very least, the museum would need to review the impact of a demolition or major change. The angular, metal-clad building, built in 1984, was Gehry’s first major public building.
Anonymous Buyer Saves Frank Lloyd Wright House From Wrecking Ball
Great news! Frank Lloyd Wright’s David & Gladys Wright house in Phoenix won’t be reduced to rubble as developers had hoped. The house, designed for FLW’s son David in 1952, had been threatened with demolition earlier this year, but an anonymous buyer ponied up nearly $2.4 million to save the house. The previous owner, developer 8081 Meridian, had proposed tearing down the house and building two new houses on the property. The spiral-planned, textile block home is one of Wright’s most unusual designs, with an amazing spiral ramp that leads into and lifts the house above the desert. Check out the video walk-through of the home above or a photo slideshow over here. Way to go, anonymous!
Another Hollywood Landmark In Trouble?
The recently-renovated Hollywood Palladium. (Coe Architecture)
Last week AN learned that Hollywood’s Capitol Records building may be in for a dwarfing by two new adjacent towers. Now we learn from our friends at Curbed that the historic Hollywood Palladium, renovated in 2008 by Coe Architects, might also be in trouble. Miami developer Crescent Heights is about pay $55 million for the Palladium site, and it’s rumored that they want to build luxury apartments or condos there. The 72-year-old theater apparently has no historic protections, so this could get ugly. Stay tuned.
This Weekend> Tech Refresher With AIACC
Exhibit A: This is a CNC Router. (AXYZ International)
Feel like technology has left you behind? Check out the AIACC Now Next Future Conference this weekend. Not only does it feature a technology boot came, with hands-on technology training, but it features technology leaders like Kevin Daly from Daly Genik, Dennis Shelden, from Gehry Technologies, and Alisdair McGregor from Arup. Meanwhile topics will include BIM, new manufacturing technologies, Eco districts, and cloud technologies. Yes, you’ll be much cooler after this is over.
Garten’s Rippling New Bridge In Los Angeles
(Berg & Associates)
As we’ve noted before, sculptor Cliff Garten is one of the lucky artists who gets to remake the urban landscape. His latest work is the Baldwin Hills Gateway, a 150-foot-long bridge that marks the entry into the Baldwin Hills Parklands, part of the sprawling Kenneth Han State Recreation Area. The eight-foot-high rail, made of water jet cut and rolled anodized aluminum, is perforated by a rippling pattern inspired by the artist’s survey of the entire park, creating interesting patterns of light and shadow on the bridge’s surface. The project, funded by a grant from the Baldwin Hills Conservancy to the Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative, just opened last week.
Vegas Neon Museum Opens Dramatic New Home
The Neon Museum’s new Visitor’s Center, inside the lobby of Paul Williams’ La Concha Hotel.
Las Vegas’ most interesting cultural attraction is not on The Strip. It’s the Neon Museum, which finally opened its new visitors center last weekend inside the lobby of the former La Concha Motel, a Googie masterpiece designed by Paul Williams. The Downtown Vegas museum, which opened in 1996, includes a boneyard containing over 150 neon signs from hotels, motels, roadside attractions, and businesses, dating back to the 1930s. Some of our favorites include the Atomic Age Stardust Hotel sign and a freestanding sign of a man known as the “Mullet Man.” The museum has also installed some of its signs along Las Vegas Boulevard and on Fremont Street. More pix from the boneyard below. Read More
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