Looking for some architectural sights to see while you’re at the national convention in Los Angeles, June 8–10? Well, do we have some great news for you!

The Los Angeles Business Council (LABC) honored the “best of the breed” of the region’s recent architecture projects on May 17 at its 36th annual Los Angeles Architectural Awards. Nineteen project teams were honored—architects, contractors, and clients who have given the city some of the most innovative projects in the region. Awards were presented in 11 categories: civic, housing, interiors, community impact, landscaping, new buildings, preservation, renovation, sustainability, unbuilt, and mixed-use. To receive an award, projects had to be located within Los Angeles County and completed during 2004 or 2005 (“unbuilt” category exempt). The Getty Villa received the grand prize for designing the newly expanded educational center and museum.

“This year’s award-winning projects exemplify the spirit of the Los Angeles Architectural Awards,” says Wallis Annenberg, vice president of the Annenberg Foundation, a group that focuses on culture and civic life and has a Los Angeles office. “As we continue to rebuild and revitalize Los Angeles, these projects are architecturally remarkable and yet sustainable and affordable.”

Brad Cox, chair of the Los Angeles Business Council and principal of Trammell Crow Company, believes that the Los Angeles Architectural Awards illuminate the most outstanding and important projects in the Los Angeles region. “As part of the Los Angeles Business Council’s mission to improve the quality of life in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Architectural Awards are recognizing the organizations that are meeting L.A.’s needs for affordable housing, sustainability, and mixed-use development.”

Awards were presented by co-chairs Andy Cohen, executive director of Gensler, and Brooke Lauter, first vice president, corporate communications of Arden Realty. “Constantly raising the bar of design excellence in the Los Angeles community is the mission of this important group of prominent leaders," notes Cohen.

Most winners are available to tour, so bring your city map and walking shoes and make some time to see these great works of architecture.

Public Use

Civic, Grand Prize:
The Getty Villa, J. Paul Getty Trust, by Machado and Silvetti Associates.
Design of the new expansion of the Getty Villa includes the remodeling of the existing J. Paul Getty Museum, creating a new home for the Getty’s permanent collection of antiquities, transforming Getty’s ranch house into a research facility, and construction of new buildings, public areas, and gardens. The new architecture transforms the inherent topographical difficulties into an amenity, allowing visitors to wander through the lush site, following the contours of the design and terrain, as if experiencing the drama of an archaeological dig. (If you go: The Getty Villa, 1200 Getty Center Drive; 310-440-7300; open Thursday–Monday, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. and closed Tuesday, Wednesday, and major holidays. Admission is free.)

Civic, Community Impact:
Ashes and Snow, by Gensler.
The Nomadic Museum is a 56,000-square-foot temporary structure housing Ashes and Snow, an exhibition of large-scale photographic works by artist Gregory Colbert. The Museum is constructed of 152 steel cargo containers, the majority of which are rented, while the remainder will be used to transport the museum as it travels from venue to venue around the globe. (If you go: Santa Monica Exhibition at the Santa Monica Pier; 866-308-4203.)

Civic:
Los Angeles Public Library, Hyde Park—Miriam Matthews Branch, by Hodgetts + Fung Design and Architecture.
The roots of the design are grounded in traditional cultural forms, but enlivened by contemporary experiences and tastes, an environment where the past is at home with the present. This is a building of intense contrasts. Such a balance between the formal and the informal produces a spatial and narrative tension that treads a narrow path but lends an almost orchestral “color” to the experience of the building. (If you go: 2205 Florence Avenue; 323-750-7241; open until 5:30 p.m.)

Preservation

The Geffen Playhouse, by Ronald Frink Architects.
The renovation and expansion of the Geffen Playhouse is an adaptive reuse of the original structure built in 1929 as a Masonic Club for UCLA. The building is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. The design has very carefully and successfully integrated a contemporary design of the new program elements with the renovation and preservation of the warm and romantic character of the Mediterranean Monterey style of the original building. (If you go: 10886 Le Conte Ave; 310-208-5454.)

Interiors

Haworth–LA Showroom, by Perkins + Will.
Opened in April 2005, this state-of-the-art new space illustrates Haworth’s commitment to adaptable and sustainable work environments with an emphasis on human, facility, organization, and business performance. Materials and messages were carefully selected to create an environment that will enrich and uplift the human spirit. Haworth’s Los Angeles showroom was recently awarded the U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design—Commercial Interiors™ (USGBC LEED–CI) Gold Certification. (If you go: The Water Garden 1601 Cloverfield Blvd., Santa Monica; 310-481-2300).

The Dimensional Forum, Dimensional Fund Advisors Inc., by Barton Phelps & Associates.
The Forum is a 7,000-square-foot conference facility on the ground floor of an ocean-view office building and hosts training symposia for employees from far-flung offices of a highly successful asset management firm. Sculptural exuberance in the reception area (an abstraction of an ancient stone quarry on the Nile) is in marked contrast to the calmly functional, 90-seat auditorium into which it looks through a soundproof glass partition. (If you go: 1299 Ocean Avenue, Santa Monica; 310-395-8005.)

Housing: Single Family

House on Blue Jay Way, by Studio Pali Fekete Architects.
Blue Jay Way represents a beautiful client-architect partnership in design. Perched on a nearly 45-degree grade, the structure is a four-level, multifaceted viewing station for the Los Angeles basin. Teak panels clad the upper level of the house, floating as if on air above an all-glass main level. A light, open-floor plan emphasizes natural light in every room, and main program elements are central and low, so as not to block views to the outside. (If you go: Follow the route from the Sunset Strip into the Hollywood Hills. This road ends at the foot of Blue Jay Way.)

Jai House, by Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects.
The house sits on a gently sloping site overlooking the Santa Monica Mountains. It is a study of the interaction between building and landscape and celebrates architecture through removal, stripping away visual and spatial excess, revealing an authenticity of construction and craft. The building is designed to blur the boundary between landscape and structure, with, for example, the pool and deck acting as an extension of the living room. (If you go: Lorcan O’Herlihy can help with directions, 310-398-0394.)

Views at 270, by M2A Milofsky Michali & Cox Architects.
The Views at 270 was designed in response to a need for a mixed-use project proposed to provide affordable housing combined with retail use. The overriding philosophy in the design was primarily that of creating a sense of community and a sense of place for the residents. The residential units are organized around the open space as a sort of “village square” or residential street. (If you go: Located at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Western Avenue in Hollywood.)

Vertical House, by Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects.
This 2,400-square-foot residence diverges from the pre-established response to front and back yards by balanced articulation of the skin on all vertical faces. Most simply, one idea coupled with and realized through materiality defines the architecture of this residence. The impact is both powerful and artistic. (If you go: Lorcan O’Herlihy can help with directions, 310-398-0394.)

Renovated Buildings

Johnson Fain Studio, by Johnson Fain Partners.
The new Johnson Fain studio is located in the refurbished Basso Chrysler/Jeep Dealership Building at 1201 North Broadway overlooking the Cornfields site, soon destined to become a 17-acre State Park. The one-acre property combines an automobile showroom, circa 1937; two barrel-vaulted loft industrial buildings, circa 1924; a single-family dwelling; and a large parking lot. (If you go: Johnson Fain Partners, 323-224-6000.)

Lehrer Architects Studio, by Lehrer Architects.
The dingy, crowded, 5,400-square-foot warehouse was transformed into a working space of light, air, and transparency where process and product become one. The visitor is immediately drawn into the architecture—which is about the beauty of making architecture. Served and servant zones are explicitly defined. They are visually calibrated to achieve complete transparency, so that the whole process of making is revealed instantly upon entry. (If you go: 2140 Hyperion Ave.; 323-664-4747.)

New Buildings

RAND Corporation Headquarters, by DMJM Design.
With the expectations of using the new building on a 24/7 schedule for another 50 years, aesthetic impact was important to RAND but less so than functionality and flexibility, support of culture and work style, and demonstration of both its analytical approach to problem-solving and its commitment to conservation of natural, client, and intellectual resources. The RAND Headquarters is an example of a building that uses an innovative approach to designing for exceptional performance. It received a U.S. Green Building Council LEED® Gold Level rating. (If you go: RAND Corporation Headquarters, 1776 Main Street; 310-393-0411.)

Sustainability

Santa Monica Public Library, by Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners.
The new Santa Monica Public Library occupies half a city block on the downtown site of the former Main Library and offers a friendly and service-oriented, flexible environment with the latest in information technology. Balancing the need for both public and private spaces was one of the main concerns in the development of the library’s design. The building received certified LEED® Silver rating for sustainability. (If you go: 601 Santa Monica Blvd.; 310-458-8600.)

Mixed-Use, Landscaping

Sunset + Vine, Bond Companies, Nakada & Associates, Inc.
Sunset + Vine was envisioned as a key project in the ongoing revitalization of Hollywood. The concept creates an urban district plan by providing street-oriented retail shops along Sunset and Vine Streets with four levels of residential units above. The residential complex uses a series of outdoor garden spaces based on the historic tradition of courtyard housing in Los Angeles.

Sustainability

TreePeople Center for Community Forestry Conference Center, TreePeople, by Marmol Radziner + Associates.
Designed for LEED® certification and oriented to make the best use of the sun and prevailing winds, the TreePeople Conference Center is one of Los Angeles’ greenest buildings. The TreePeople Conference Center in California’s Coldwater Canyon Park will be a gathering place for local, national, and international leaders to create healthy, sustainable cities. The state-of-the-art conference center also facilitates policy initiatives and supports innovative partnerships to restore America’s urban ecosystems. (If you go: Coldwater Canyon Park Information: 818-753-4600.

—Russell Boniface

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