Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition, US Architecture Contest

Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition

Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Ideas Competition

Oct 11, 2010

Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition Winners

SCI-ARC ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF LOS ANGELES CLEANTECH CORRIDOR AND GREEN DISTRICT COMPETITION

Mayor, Civic, Business, and Architecture and Design Thought-leaders
Gather to Award Prizes and Unveil Winning Projects

Exhibition Opens at SCI-Arc Library Gallery Showcasing Outstanding Competition Projects

Los Angeles – The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) is pleased to announce the winners of the Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition.  An open ideas competition sponsored by SCI-Arc and Theforum for provocative, even revolutionary, reconceptualizations of L.A.’s urban fabric. A community celebration will be held on Saturday, October 9 at 2 p.m. in downtown Los Angeles on the SCI-Arc campus.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says of the competition’s implications for the City’s future:  “I would like to congratulate the winners of the Los Angeles Clean Tech Corridor and Green District Competition. This competition showcases both the national and international draw of SCI-Arc, and our combined efforts to make Los Angeles the creative and innovative capital of the world. With our world class universities along with our other unparalleled resources, Los Angeles offers the perfect competitive operating environment for the clean tech sector to thrive and grow.” The Mayor predicts the Corridor will transform downtown’s industrial core into an incubator for green jobs and technology, promote the sustainable growth of Los Angeles’ economy, and place the city at the forefront of the Cleantech revolution.

Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition Winners

Professional Category First Place Award: $5000

UMBRELLA by Constantin Boincean, Ralph Bertram; Aleksandra Danielak, Oslo, Norway

Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design

According to the designers the winning entry, Project Umbrella, “…reinterprets LA’s existing infrastructure by implementing a point-based renewal strategy that will gradually transform the city grid into a greener and more attractive public space. Mushroom-like structures named solar evaporators tap into the city’s sewage, collecting and clarifying the black water originating from the surrounding blocks.

The clear water is distributed and released into the streets through a process of evaporation and condensation triggering a transformation into a network of lush, cultivated landscapes. Green webs spreading out from the evaporators generate incentives for new, sustainable developments. The central urban plazas become focal points for a gradual process of transformation that will affect the way people will see, use, and experience their city.”

Student Category First Place Award: $2000

MessyTECH by Randall Winston, Jennifer Jones, Renee Pean
University of Virginia School of Architecture
Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design

The young designers of MessyTECH describe their project this way: “MessyTech recognizes the full life cycles involved in “clean” industries, which can be complex and not perfectly clean. In turn, messy processes can lead to cleaner ones. Designing and manufacturing are inherently messy, where error can lead to progress and where flexibility reigns. Creativity and artistry are fostered in environments of cross-pollination and collaboration, where conflict and harmony co-generate good ideas. The weaving of diverse infrastructures, people, and activities makes for a rich and dynamic urban fabric.”

“SCI- Arc came downtown to participate in the re-imagining of downtown,” says, Eric Own Moss, Director of SCI-Arc. “The Cleantech discourse is an essential part of that re-imagining. Unlike most cities to which Los Angeles is often compared, we’re a young city with a realistic opportunity to define and implement the next conceptual city. Let’s go.”

The competition asked architects, landscape architects, designers, engineers, urban planners, students, and environmental professionals to create an innovative urban vision for the Cleantech Corridor, a 2,000-acre development zone on the eastern edge of downtown Los Angeles. Seventy entries were received from architectural firms and students in 11 countries including Austria, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the United States.

Entrants were encouraged to challenge conventional wisdom and move beyond industrial uses—creating an integrated economic, residential, clean energy, and cultural engine to re-invigorate this Arts and Industrial District into a thriving mixed-use center. The competition was presented with the Office of the Mayor and the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles (CRA/LA), which established the Cleantech Corridor in the fall of 2008.

Jurors for the competition were Stan Allen, Dean of the School of Architecture at Princeton University; Principal, Stan Allen Architect; Ming Fung, Director of Academic Affairs, SCI‐Arc; Principal, Hodgetts+Fung Design and Architecture; Cris B. Liban, D.Env., P.E., Environmental Compliance and Services Department Manager Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority; Michael Maltzan, Principal, Michael Maltzan Architecture; Dennis McGlade, RLA, FASLA Partner OLIN; Romel Pascual, City of Los Angeles Deputy Mayor, Energy and Environment; Nikolas Patsaouras, past president of the Board of the Water and Power Commissioners and former board member of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority; and Donald Spivack, Deputy Chief of Operations and Policy, Community Redevelopment Agency, L.A.

Commenting on the importance of the competition, juror Stan Allen noted that it “envisions a strategic way forward that re-imagines the city of the future as a place not only of consumption, but a place where things are still made, but now produced using all of the new technologies available today to work more sustainably.  It helps to move the debates forward in architecture, landscape and urbanism.”  

Of thewinning project in the professional category by Constantin Boincean, Ralph Bertram, and Aleksandra Danielak, he says: “What appears initially to be an oversized piece of functional street furniture turns out to be connected into a larger network of water purification and resource distribution. The project is highly memorable as an image, at the same time as it transforms the way the city will treat its resources in the future.” He cites the student project by Randall Winston, Jennifer Jones,  and Renee Pean as being a “beautifully drawn and well-resolved urban insertion.”

The Cleantech Corridor is the second competition sponsored by SCI-Arc’s Future Initiatives program and The Architect’s Newspaper. The first competition inspired by the passage of Los Angeles County’s transit funding measure—A New Infrastructure: Innovative Transit Solutions for Los Angeles—attracted an international array of architectural and design firms and promoted a community conversation about innovative design, policy, and planning responses.

“The Future Initiatives (SCIFI) program at SCI-Arc aims to be a leader in driving debate and dialogue around the future of cities and urban regions,” states Peter Zellner, Coordinator of the SCIFI program. “ SCIFI hosts competitions and exhibitions focused on Los Angeles to draw attention to pressing urban issues, stimulate public discussion and where possible drive the public and private sectors towards innovative ideas and solutions.”

Professional Category

First Place Award: Constantin Boincean, Ralph Bertram, Aleksandra Danielak, Oslo, Norway
Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design

Second Place Award: LABTOP, Thomas Sériés, Vincent Saura, Vuki Backonja, Amanda Li Chang, Eduardo Manilla, Benjamin Sériés, Paris, France

Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design

Third Place Award: Buro Happold, Mia Lehrer & Associates, Elizabeth Timme, Jim Suhr, Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design

Three Honorable Mentions: Escher GuneWardena Architecture (Los Angeles), Zoltan Neville (Los Angeles), and ZAGO Architecture (Los Angeles)

Escher GuneWardena Architecture:
Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design

Zoltan Neville:
Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design

ZAGO Architecture:
Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design

Student Category
First Place Award: Randall Winston, Jennifer Jones, Renee Pean, University of Virginia School of Architecture
Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design

Second Place Award: Ji Hoon Kim, Bartlett School of Architecture, University College, London
Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design

Third Place
Award: Ryan Lovett, Jesse Keenan, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University
Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design

Honorable Mention: Lydia Lee Kemppainen, Interior Design Program, UCLA Extension

Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition
Presented and Organized by the Future Initiatives program at SCI-Arc and The Architect’s Newspaper.

Exhibition at SCI-Arc Library Gallery
Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor Competition: An Exhibition of Winning Projects
9 – 27 Oct 2010
SCI-Arc is open daily from 10am-6 pm
http://www.sciarc.edu/portal/about/cleantech/indexl
Saturday, October 9, 2010 / 2pm
A community gathering to celebrate the competition winners. This event will be broadcast live online at www.sciarc.edu/live

Attendees include: Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa L.A. City Council members Jan Perry and Jose Huizar; Eric Owen Moss, Director, Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc); Peter Zellner, Coordinator, Southern California Institute of Future Initiatives program (SCIFI) at SCI-Arc; Sam Lubell, West coast editor, The Architect’s Newspaper. Competition JurorMing Fung, Director of Academic Affairs, SCI‐Arc; Principal, Hodgetts+Fung Design and Architecture.

W. M. Keck Lecture Hall and SCI-Arc Library Gallery

Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc)
960 East 3rd Street Los Angeles, California 90013
213.613.2200
Free parking.

About The Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition

The Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition is sponsored by the Southern California Institute of Architecture and The Architect’s Newspaper. The competition is presented in partnership with the Office of the Mayor of Los Angeles, the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles, Quercus Trust, Latham & Watkins LLP., Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Clean Tech LA, and U.S. Green Building Council, Los Angeles Chapter. This project is made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs.

SCI-Arc

The Southern California Institute of Architecture is dedicated to educating architects who will imagine and shape the future. It is an independent, degree-granting institution offering graduate and undergraduate programs in architecture. Located in a quarter-mile long former freight depot in the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles, the school is distinguished by its vibrant studio culture and emphasis on process. SCI-Arc’s approximately 500 students and 80 faculty members, most of whom are practicing architects, work together to re-examine assumptions, create, explore and test the limits of architecture.
Previously:

Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition 2010

30 Sep 2010 – registration closing date + submission deadline

An Open Ideas Competition

Sponsored by the Future Initiatives program at SCI-Arc and The Architect’s Newspaper

Los Angeles, CA (August 10, 2010) The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) and The Architect’s Newspaper are today launching the Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition. The competition asks architects, landscape architects, designers, engineers, urban planners, students, and environmental professionals to create an innovative urban vision for the Cleantech Corridor, a several-mile-long development zone on the eastern edge of downtown Los Angeles.

The competition, which offers more than $11,000 in prize money, is presented with the Office of the Mayor and the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles (CRA/LA), which established the Cleantech Corridor. It asks entrants to move beyond industrial uses—creating an integrated economic, residential, clean energy, and cultural engine for the city through architectural and urban strategies. Crucially, this competition will provide an open ideas forum for provocative, even revolutionary, new visions of L.A.’s urban fabric and infrastructure.

Professional and student competitors are also requested to consider the work already completed by the Urban Land Institute’s Advisory Service Panel for the Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor, which is sponsored by the CRA/LA and the Department of Water and Power.

Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Ideas Competition Timeline

August 9: Competition Launch
August 20: FAQ Deadline (Competitor Questions Due)
August 25: FAQ released on www.sciarc.edu
September 30: Entries Due / Registration Closes
October 9: Competition Symposium at SCI-Arc
+ Winners Announced and Results Posted Online
+ Exhibition Opening

More information, including the competition brief, timeline, and complete jury, can be found at www.sciarc.edu

About SCI-Arc

The Southern California Institute of Architecture is dedicated to educating architects who will imagine and shape the future. It is an independent, accredited degree-granting institution offering undergraduate and graduate programs in architecture. Located in a quarter-mile-long former freight depot in the Arts District in Downtown Los Angeles, the school is distinguished by its vibrant studio culture and emphasis on process.

SCI-Arc’s approximately 500 students and 80 faculty members—most of whom are practicing architects—work together to re-examine assumptions, create, explore, and test the limits of architecture. SCI-Arc is located at 960 E. 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013.

Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Ideas Competition information from The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc)

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