FEATURED ARCHITECT: LEVIN & ASSOCIATES

In the early 80's when women architects were few and far between, Brenda Levin had the opportunity to renovate the Wiltern Theater. Located on a prominent site at Western Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard, the old vaudeville theater with its attached Art Deco office building tower had fallen into a delapidated state by the late 70's. Restoring and updating the theater was a lengthy painstaking process, taking nearly 4 years. Because of the building's prominence, it had the effect of kickstarting the preservation movement in Los Angeles.

Levin & Associates went on to become one of the most sought after preservation architects in Los Angeles and one of the leading women owned architectural firms in the city. The firm has worked on most of the city's most significant historical buildings including City Hall, the Bradbury Building, the Griffith Observatory, and the carriage house at the Huntington Library as well as completing many new buildings including the Commons Building for Scripps College.

On July 28th we hosted what everyone who attended agreed was a convivial evening pairing Rob Rogers with Susan Szenasy for a Cocktails & Conversations. The Conversation was intimate and delightful. Rob was quite forthcoming about his career path sharing his architectural journey from his teenage years to today. He neglected to mention that he was planning to split from Jonathan Marvel his longtime professional partner a few days later. We got some calls wondering if we had heard anything at our event. Nada.

On August 1st at our Pecha Kucha, one of the Presenters was Barry Bergdoll. He spent most of his allocated 3 minutes talking about how architecture is shown in a museum highlighting some of the exhibitions he's curated in his 6 years at the helm of MoMA before briefly mentioning that he was stepping down from that job. We wish them both lots of luck.

MAP #3:
SOL LEWITT IN MANHATTAN


This summer the JCC in Manhattan installed Sol Lewitt's Wall Drawing #599. To celebrate cultureNOW made the summer's third map, a 10' high x 13' wide Map of his 24 public installations around New York. The map was installed as part of the companion exhibition in the lobby. The 'soft opening' was August 15th; the 'official opening' is September 17th.

FEATURED ARCHITECT: BELZBERG ARCHITECTS GROUP

Like many architects in Los Angeles, Hagy Belzberg began his career by working in Frank Gehry's office. His sojourn was brief, as it didn't take long for him to get a residential project. That launched him on his career. Added to the usual mix of residential, offices and retail that frame many of the practices in LA are a couple of really unique commissions.

The Conga Room at LA LIVE is meant to be THE iconic Los Angeles Latin nightclub that anchors LA LIVE, the new Entertainment District near Staples Center. Consequently, the club boasts a group of A-List owners culled from the ranks of Latino music stars including Jennifer Lopez, Paul Rodriguez, and Jimmy Smits and and is full of the assorted bars, VIP spaces, and broadcasting partners and the architecture reflects that.

Belzberg is also the architect of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. Here the design strategy consisted of the integration of the building into the surrounding park landscape which continues over the roof of the structure. The existing park pathways are used to integrate the pedestrian flow of the park with the new circulation for museum visitors.

FEATURED ARCHITECT: BROOKS + SCARPA ARCHITECTS

No matter how strong the practice is and how stable the principals, getting a 'divorce' is always a major challenge for an architectural firm. Not only are logistical concerns about personnel and who keeps which clients, but other issues of design, priorities, and aesthetics also get rejiggered. In its former iteration, Pugh + Scarpa won the AIA Firm Award in 2010 right before their split.

So does the work change with a team change. Among other things the firm was noted for environmental sensitivity and rethinking the construction process to make the projects more economical and efficient. The Lofts @ Cherokee Studios, for instance is a market rate LEED Platinum live/work loft complex with movable facade screens. It allows the residents to adjust their ventilation and sunlight. Three years later, a totally different project, the Animo Leadership High School has a similar aesthetic and incorporates many of the same environmental features, despite the challenges inherent in designing a large public high school in a difficult neighborhood. It, too, takes advantage of the passive solar strategies to minimize the use of air conditioning and is on target to get a LEED certification.