project_la.jpg

Los Angeles, California

Fall 2007

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(This studio project and its publication are supported by Champion Enterprises, Inc.’s gift to the Center for Building Communities.)

The Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles has asked the Center for Building Communities for design assistance in creating a livelier, full-time community in the 94-block downtown Fashion District, an area of retail, wholesale, commercial, and light manufacturing activities, but with virtually no residential accommodations. The CRA/LA wants to make welcome a significant population of diverse additional residents while maintaining the Fashion District’s unique character as a global wholesale and retail mecca.

The students laid out an overall concept plan for the area, and then divided into teams to develop design proposals for three specific locations within the Fashion District: the Flower Market at the north end, the centrally located City Market, and the new headquarters of BCBG projected for a disused area near the south end. The studio emphasized both modular and hybrid building systems, as well as integrative, passive solar, and landscape design. Students in graphic and industrial design collaborated, among other things contributing a new signage and color palette for the district, and a proposal for a versatile, multifunctional overnight shop security system that would also contribute to a well-lighted and attractive streetscape.