Agence Ter and Team have been announced as the winners of a proposal to redesign the oldest park in Los Angeles, Pershing Square, with a call for “radical flatness.” Opened in 1866, with subsequent name changes and redesigns, the winning proposal will replace the most recent iteration by Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta and landscape architect Laurie Olin, which opened in 1994. Pershing Square is a five-acre park bounded by 5th Street to the north, 6th Street to the south, Hill Street to the east, and Olive Street to the west, in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles. The path to redevelopment began in September 2015, when the Los Angeles City Council adopted the plans of councilmember José Huizar, to create a public-private partnership and work with Pershing Square Renew, a non-profit partner, which came out of a task force created by Huizar in 2013.

Courtesy of Agence Ter and Team

Beginning with 10 semifinalists selected last October and four finalists in December, Agence Ter’s proposal won the competition yesterday, garnering the highest scores from the 1,355 members of the public who weighed in on the four finalists and a unanimous selection by the Pershing Square Renew jury. The redevelopment has been led by Councilmember Huizar, the Department of Recreation and Parks, MacFarlane Partners (provider of start-up funding for Pershing Square Renew), and other leaders, including Gensler and the law offices of Loeb and Loeb.

Courtesy of Agence Ter and Team

Agence Ter’s proposal would eliminate the elevated condition of the current park, caused by the inclusion of a garage beneath the square. By bringing the park back to ground level, a “radical flatness” would reestablish views across the park and allow the environment to spill out along the square’s borders and surrounding streets. Some of the new park’s main features are a reflecting pool along the west side, mirroring the stately Biltmore Hotel, and a “smart canopy” designed by artist Leo Villareal, providing shade during the day and light at night. Addressing issues of sustainability and efficiency, the park will use water cycling and alternative energy systems. The park seeks to establish a balance between open and shaded conditions, a need for flexible and programmable space, and to create a welcoming, ecologically diverse environment.

Courtesy of Agence Ter and Team

“We are extremely excited and ready to contribute to the rebirth of Downtown Los Angeles through the renewing of Pershing Square,” said Henri Bava, founder and director of Agence Ter. “By radically flattening the lifted surface, it will reach out to the neighborhood again, establishing a real dialogue with the city. It will become a green, sustainable and active destination for the metropolis and will be timeless and elegant through its welcoming simplicity.”

Courtesy of Agence Ter and Team

Although based in Paris, Agence Ter has assembled a “Team” of lauded partners, many of which are based in Los Angeles:

• SALT Landscape Architects
• Deborah Murphy Urban Design + Planning
• Kelly Shannon – RUA, Landscape Urbanism
• Community Arts Resources LA, Urban Programming
• Rachel Allen Architecture
• Pentagram, Branding
• Still Room, Wayfinding and Graphic Design
• Leo Villareal, Light Artist
• Fehr & Peers, Transportation Consultants
• KPFF, Structural / Civil Engineers
• M-E Engineering, Mechanical / Electrical / Plumbing Engineers
• Lighting Design Alliance, Architectural Lighting Design

The Pershing Square Renew Jury:

• Janet Marie Smith (Jury Chair), SVP, Planning and Development, Los Angeles Dodgers
• José Huizar, Councilmember, 14th District, City of Los Angeles
• Donna Bojarsky, Founder and President, Future of Cities: Leading in LA
• Simon Ha, Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council and Downtown LA Resident
• Mary McCue, Founder, MJM Management Group
• Rick Poulos, Principal, NBBJ
• Janet Rosenberg, Founding Principal, Janet Rosenberg & Studio
• Michael Shull, General Manager, Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks,
• Michael Woo, Dean, Cal Poly Pomona, School of Environmental Design

For more about Agence Ter’s proposal or the redevelopment process, visit the Pershing Square Renew website here.

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© Fernando Ruz

• Architects: Emil Osorio Schmied
• Location: Valdivia, Valdivia, Los Ríos Region, Chile
• Design Team: Emil Osorio Schmied, Natalia Gajardo Herrera
• Area: 115.0 sqm
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Fernando Ruz

© Fernando Ruz

From the architect. This residence in the woods, located ten minutes away from city centre, is there to question its own nature. To what extent can a rural plot redefine a permanent dwelling for city users? The design concept addresses such matter as the search for shelter in open environments. However, late amendments on the brief, such as a requirement for both reading and working shared zones, plus comfort features like, for instance, natural lighting, determine a number of adjustments regarding the architectural programme. The basic outline includes three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a common space containing the kitchen, dining and living area.

© Fernando Ruz

Since the plot has a continuous slope of thirty-five percent, it provides not only a vast downward perspective from top, but also a panoramic view of the surrounding rainforest hills. Such visual openness founds the choice of keeping the house as high within site as possible. Also, physical proximity to giant native trees allows experiencing a sense of corporeal weakness -or vertigo-, as one looks up towards tree crowns while stepping on a leaning ground. 

Noting this perception in relation to the steep soil, drives the design to propose an extension of the latter into the domestic space, by integrating the vertical dimension of both trees and soil as stated previously. Moreover, the lack of flat ground makes it possible to envisage the architectural programme as organised through a number of overlapped levels -each one with a narrow, squared floor plan- until completing all requirements. Therefore, a three-storey volume on a minimum platform within the incline raises as the desired recipient. Connecting the site entrance with this volume occurs through the addition of external treads as well as a pedestrian bridge, which conduct people towards a sheltered void in the south-east corner on first floor, where the main door is. 

© Fernando Ruz

Plan

© Fernando Ruz

External references like sights and daylight, complement the domestic domain to both visual and physical links to all internal levels -above and below- from the receiving hall on first floor. Next to a shared reading zone, a mezzanine overlooks the ground floor as it also provides downward views of the surrounding landscape on north through a double-height fenestration. On top floor, the staircase arrives in a shared working zone which has a wide ocular dominion to the woods on south. Areas such as the kitchen, dining, and living room occupy an open plan on the ground floor, where it is yet possible to have a glimpse of most internal heights.

Section

Albeit smaller private spaces complete the remaining parts of the house structure, some are still able to extend in terms of gross floor area. That is the case of two separate bedrooms on top floor, which grow beyond the volume boundaries, in the form of a cantilever towards south and west, respectively.

© Fernando Ruz

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Though it was once an essential element of all classical structures, the frieze has largely been left behind by architects looking for contemporary façade systems. But at the recently-opened addition to the Kunstmuseum Basel, designed by Swiss architects Christ & Gantenbein in collaboration with design group iart, the frieze returns with an eye-catching, technological twist, as hidden pixels within the facade light up to display moving images and text to those below.

© Derek Li Wan Po, Basel

The new frieze is surprising in that it is constructed of the same material as the rest of the museum’s façade, 8-centimeter-tall gray bricks that the designers say “exude the timeless and archaic air of an ancient ruin.” But in the frieze, a custom-developed concave groove has been cut from the bottom of each brick. When daylight passes over the frieze, it casts a shadow into the grooves, making them appear darker than the surrounding façade.

Courtesy of iart

LEDs are then mounted into the flat profile of each of these grooves. When turned on, the light reflects off of the brick’s concave underside and is reflected out toward the street, matching the brick’s appearance to the rest of the façade. This allows the lights to act as pixels in the horizontal band which wraps around the building. The lights can be turned on and off to create different patterns or to display text.

© Derek Li Wan Po, Basel

As daylight fades, the system works the opposite way: text and patterns are displayed by illuminating the pixels and leaving the surrounding pixels dark. The outside of the building contains light sensors to regulate the LED strength necessary to create the smooth transition between the frieze and the surrounding façade.

© Derek Li Wan Po, Basel

As exhibitions and programs within the museum rotate, the frieze can be programmed to display different messages and images. The frieze was utilized to advertise the addition’s first exhibition, “Sculpture on the Move,” and will surely serve as a landmark in the city for many exhibitions to come.

Kunstmuseum Basel / Christ & Gantenbein

See the project in full here.

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© Sebastian Crespo

• Architects: Diez+Muller Arquitectos
• Location: Cumbres del Valle, Quito 170157, Ecuador
• Project Architects: Gonzalo Diez P., Felipe Muller B.
• Project Area: 95.0 m2
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Sebastian Crespo

• Construction: Ing. Cristian Herrera, OBRUM
• Engineering: Ing. Cristian Herrera
• Site Area: 2000 m2

© Sebastian Crespo

CUBO house is an addition to an existing house in a quiet residential area in the valley of Cumbayá in Quito. The client required an extension to the original house to include one bedroom, its services, and a small social area. The idea was always that this would be a separate element of the original building and not an extension of the house.

Diagram

© Sebastian Crespo

Both the type as well as the simplicity of the program led us to think of the project as a simple and prismatic object that reflects its typology. In essence, it is to create a neutral element that does not necessarily have to dialogue with the design of the existing house but neither to compete with it.

© Sebastian Crespo

This simplicity of form is also coherent with a basic program for a small house.

Plan

Diagram

Thus, the architectural solution to the problem is a cube of exact dimensions (x, y, z), and an almost monolithic abstraction. This abstraction is also translated into the construction of the project reflecting its simplicity through four materials that make up the entire assembly: Metal, concrete, wood and glass.

© Sebastian Crespo

The Cube is composed of a metal “skeleton” clad on four sides, with a concrete top and bottom that can be felt both outside and inside the space. The skeleton or metal structure is expressed inside the house with all the elements exposed, and as all the vertical surfaces are gray concrete, all horizontal surfaces both in ceilings and floors are made of wood.

© Sebastian Crespo

Finally, the privacy required by the program makes cube an almost solid and impermeable element. The openings, windows and doors are modulated and proportioned according to the rationality of the cube.

© Sebastian Crespo

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As students, we aspire to become architects that get to work on great design projects. The truth is, for most of us, we end up at firms that don’t quite meet those expectations. That is the experience of the characters in our webcomic, Architexts, and if it’s yours too, we’d love to hear from you for our new book, Architects, LOL.

Sometimes, there is a glimmer of hope when the firm principal wants to pursue a great design project, but that’s often an empty gesture, because you know your firm just isn’t qualified for the job. While surely other professions have a similar gap between expectations and reality, somehow architecture seems to be worse. When you Google “architecture” some of the first links you get are for architecture magazines which, naturally, feature projects that are worthy of publication for a reason. But we all know that architecture is a lot more than what is published in prestigious architecture magazines. The real story of architectural practice is what interests us, and that’s why we’re writing a new book and asking real people to share their experiences with us. Check out Architexts for information on submitting your stories and insights for this book.

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Courtesy of E-Lab Internet Technology Ltd.

Competition Theme: Green – Eco – Future Building Systems and Lifestyle

The design intent is to create a system/network of eco-green elevated sky gardens within a soon to be realised super high-rise residential complex, with the aim of drastically improving the living environment and lifestyle of urban dwellers. This competition seeks young architects worldwide to provide innovative ideas to break the existing typology of the super high-rise and isolated lifestyles associated with high density urban living. 

Competition Design Content:

Designing a system of eco-green elevated sky gardens for a Chong Qing residential skyscraper

Pre-selection of the Competition Participants:

Architectural design related firms and architects with less than 45 years of age (D.O.B birthday must be after 01/01/1971). The participant’s ID, resume together with a graphic portfolio of less than 9 pages should be submitted during the online application stage. The attachment should be no more than 5MB.

Competition Awards:

Phase 1

• Competition Phase2 Invitation: 8 entries
• Competition Phase1 Design Excellence: 10 entries
•  Phase1 Design Excellence Bonus: 20,000RMB/entry
• Note: Phase1 design excellence are excluded from 8 entries for competition Phase 2

Phase 2

• 1st Prize Competition Winner Contract Commission, design fee no less than 600,000 RMB
• 2nd Prize Award Bonus: 200,000 RMB
• 3rd Prize Award Bonus: 150,000 RMB
• 4^th-8^th Prize Award Bonus: 100,000 RMB

Competition Schedule:

• Registration Time: 01/05/2016 – 27/05/2016
• Design Submission Deadline: 03/07/2016 (GMT +8, Beijing 24:00)
• Note: The deadline is defined in the term of Beijing time.

Registration Website:

Online registration is used in this competition. Please register via the official Competition Website:http://ift.tt/27jkExA

Main Organizers:

• E-Lab Internet Technology Ltd.
• Yangshida Real-Estate Development Ltd.

The Competition Jury Panel:

• Pierre-Alain Croset: President of the Jury
• Stefano Boeri : Founder of Boeri Architectual Design Ltd.
• Hikosaka Hiro: Hikosaka Hiro Architectual Design Ltd.
• Gary Chang: Managing Director of EDGE Design Institute Ltd. (Hong Kong)
• Bo Xi: President of UDG Design Group.
• Shen Chi: Multi-Arch International Design Agency & China International Engineering Design and Consult Co., LTD.   Senior Partner and Chief Architect

Contact Information:

• Competition Email: admin@elab-plus.com
• Inquiry E-mail:service@elab-plus.com
• Competition Website:  http://ift.tt/27jkExA

• Title: Call for Entries: Design a Sky Garden System for the Chong Qing Skyline
• Type: Call for Submissions
• Organizers: E-Lab Internet Technology Ltd.
• Registration Deadline: 27/05/2016 00:00
• Submission Deadline: 03/07/2016 00:00
• Address: Nan Bing Rd No.30, South Bank District, Chongqing, China

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