A few months ago I wrote about how developers Gerding/Edlen and Williams & Dame had announced a handful of new mixed-use condominium projects in downtown Los Angeles designed by Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects and TVA Architects. Now Ankrom has announced a new condo project, called Circa, for a different Southern California developer.
Here's the information Ankrom gave me about Circa:
CLIENT GOALS: Design a mixed-use gateway building in the up and coming Koreatown District of LA, just minutes away from the downtown core on prestigious Wilshire Boulevard.
DESIGN RESPONSE: The building takes all its design cues from the site, the views and the historic buildings in the area. The 5 story base of the building responds to the scale of the low rise historic buildings that are prominent on Wilshire Boulevard. The 18 story residential tower incorporates a modernist palette of glass, metal and pre-cast concrete. The tower’s north-south axis is designed to take advantage of the views of the city, Hollywood Hills, and the active street life on Wilshire Boulevard. The 400,000 SF project will provide 190 residential units, retail space, and parking.
Merely being hired for this job is a positive sign for Ankrom. They're not just part of Portland-based developers work in Los Angeles now, but have caught on with a local co-developer. And while the condo market seems to be slowing nationally, there remains a lot going on in downtown LA, what with the Frank Gehry-led Grand Avenue development and a host of other projects happening there.
It's hard to see some of the tower's details very well in this nighttime rendering, but in the residential portion above the base, there seems to be a nice pattern of floor-to-ceiling glass and flat sun shades. There seems to be some big planes of concrete at the base, which I'm not sure about compositionally, but again it's hard to discern much from a nighttime rendering.
Regardless, this project is another sign that Ankrom is not only the most prolific of Portland's condo builders, but also a firm that out-of-towners are coming to for their expertise and experience.
Functional. Forgettable. Expertise and experience in being able to rapidly throw up structures that promises a high probability of quick return on capital investment.
This building's limpid style gets to be drudgery when repeated over and over again with the frequency Portland has had the misfortune of experiencing at this architectural firms hands. It would help if they would start thinking in terms of using at least a little variation in shape from the standard box they seem to prefer. A little less subtle ornamentation would help too.
Posted by: ws | August 07, 2006 at 12:15 PM
I think developer-driven condo projects are not the best format for innovation. It's a formula, to some degree, and a puzzle. I think it's functional, and not really unforgettable based on what we're seeing in these renderings. But nonetheless a respectable design that will be good for its immediate environment urbanistically.
Posted by: Brian Libby | August 07, 2006 at 02:25 PM
ws says: "It would help if they would start thinking in terms of using at least a little variation in shape from the standard box they seem to prefer."
The floorplan is driven by FAR and the developers proforma. The proforma is done by the developer, not the architect.
The building's bulk is driven by those things, not an architects desire for a fat building. If a skinny, tall, tower project was all that could be allowed by the FAR, and was financially feasible in a given market, you'd see one from AMAA and every other condo architect in a hearbeat.
Brian has it right. It's a formula, but to a major degree. It's difficult to do pilot type projects like Elleven, Circa, Evo, and Luma in new markets like LA and San Jose that break the mold. Elleven was very nice, but conservative, Luma is a little less so, and Evo is further less so.
Developers and the banks that finance them, are not keen on taking exceptional $125 million dollar risks the first time out.
That's part of the reason that only now are you seeing some more architecture that at least trends to the avant garde type design, in the Portland market. The market is proven and has shown it can support $500-$600 a square foot sale costs, like you're seeing at the Metropolitan, and down on the South Waterfront with the upcoming towers there.
The LA market is just getting started.
-Bronson
Posted by: Bronson Graff | August 07, 2006 at 03:10 PM