Big and Baked in the Sun.
Living in Los Angeles, one is constantly in search of a place to find that is cool, shaded, intimate, and walkable.
So why are architects and developers still producing sun-baked, tree-deficient, anti-urban statements in our city?
In all the applause over the “new downtown”, where the architectural stars include Staples Center, Caltrans Building Disney Center, Our Lady of Angels Cathedral and the new Coop-Himmelblau designed Central Los Angeles Area High School, one thing unites all these projects: a lack of trees and shade. They revel in their arrogant egregiousness and preoccupation with shape over substance.
These oddly shaped structures seem more intent on drawing attention to themselves than enhancing the city around them.
They might be noticed, but what are they not contributing to the city around them?
It’s the “Getty Effect” – a creation designed to overwhelm and is easy to clean. People are optional.
Well, at least Disney Hall has its interior garden with the Disney petal fountain, which is open to the public, and the cathedral does have the garden area between its two buildings. Not exactly streetside, you say.
Oftentimes, not enough real estate to build to the ideal, including the landscaping, without going further up – a trade-off to some, not so to others.