Inglewood Civic Center Plaza
101 West Manchester Boulevard
Inglewood, California
Inglewood Civic Center Plaza
101 West Manchester Boulevard
Inglewood, California
Inglewood Urbanstage' was a public art commission for the City of Inglewood completed in 2015 -- a month-long urban intervention consisting of an architectural sculpture, construction performance and panel series sited at the civic plaza of Inglewood City hall. The plaza, designed by Charles Luckman in the 1970s, is one of Los Angeles' many neglected public spaces. The Urbanstage sought to re-activate the plaza as a site for community community dialogue and engagement, specifically in Inglewood.
Composed of wood modules, Urbanstage was reconstructed once every week, for four weeks, to create four distinct iterations of transformative architecture. As a public pavilion, Urbanstage was activated weekly by curated civic conversations and workshops focused on urban issues in Inglewood and Los Angeles: transportation and the impact of automobiles, art cities and gentrification, urban development and shared futures based on food, culture, and diversity.
Each week-long cycle featured a different spatial configuration, intended to generate different discussions and modes of social interaction. The four Urbanstage cycles were the Amphitheatre, Transverse, Labyrinthian and Longtable. These forms, each installed for one week, explored how the architecture of shared space can impact our urban conversations. With a team of performers, the same modules were then shifted to create the other renditions of the outdoor wooden sculpture.