FORM Event Draws Crowd Craving Info on Infrastructure

The Downtown Los Angeles offices of Perkins + Will hosted Form's most recent event on April 7: Infrastructure: The intersection of design, engineering and imagination. Form contributor Jack Skelley- Senior Partner at Paolucci Communication Arts-hosted the panel discussion, with four high-level practitioners: Leigh Christy, Senior Associate at Perkins + Will , the international design firm whose specialties includes urban design, planning strategies, preservation and reuse, discussed the proposed plan for revitalizing the Los Angeles River at the Piggyback Yards near Downtown Los Angeles.

Michael Bohn, Principal at Studio One Eleven at Perkowitz + Ruth Architects - an integrated practice of architecture, landscape and urban design - spoke about his firm's work with the City of Long Beach to create "road diets" and other innovative streetscaping. Among the successes of these efforts, Bohn reported, has been a dramatically increased business, thanks to enhanced pedestrian vitality and economic activity.  Cliff Garten, the internationally recognized sculptor and founder of Cliff Garten Studio in Venice, California, spoke about his project, "Corridor of Light," in Arlington Virginia - illuminated sculptures that combine public art with masterplanning. And Deborah Weintraub, who is Deputy City Engineer, Chief Architect for the Department of Public Works, Bureau of Engineering, at the City of Los Angeles, discussed the crucial importance of bringing architects early on into the discussion of large-scale

infrastructure projects. 

Co-sponsors of the event were Izze beverage company and Pama, pomegranate liqueur. 

Sustainability at Work at East Village Creative Offices

The new 4th + Linden East Village Creative Offices in Long Beach, California recently unveiled new sustainable interiors. Designed for developer/contractor JR van Dijs, Inc., the workspace includes operable windows to capture ocean breezes, and operable skylights to exhaust hot air from the space, eliminating the need for air conditioning. The skylights and windows also expand daylighting throughout the open floorplan: Only individual task or accent lighting is required during the day.

Sustainability makes its way into the water fixtures – including dual-flush toilets – and into the interior walls, handrails, and stairs – composed of recycled lumber. The new interiors are built from raw shells featuring exposed brick and block walls, concrete floors and wood truss ceilings with skylights. The project is also sustainable on a larger scale: 4th+ Linden is an office condominium project designed and developed by Studio One Eleven as an adaptive reuse of three once-derelict, conjoined buildings. The result is a transformation of formerly blighted structures into a neighborhood asset for the East Village Arts District in Long Beach.

Arts and TOD Project Mixes Generations, Incomes and Uses

Long Beach Senior Arts Colony – part of the multi-phase Long Beach + Anaheim development – has won Project of the Year from the 2010 Sage Awards. This “on the boards” complex combines a mixed-use, mixed-income, multigenerational community into a transit-oriented development (TOD) at Long Beach Boulevard and Anaheim Street. The versatile design – by Studio One Eleven – maximizes proximity to two major transit lines: the Blue Line light rail and Anaheim Street bus line (the most-used bus line in Long Beach). Enhancing its transit-intensive location are car-sharing, bike facilities, priority parking for hybrid cars, and a new bus/light-rail stop.

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