The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is honoring Conjunctive Points – The New City, designed by Eric Owen Moss Architects, with its Twenty-five Year Award.
AIA’s Twenty-five Year Award is conferred on a building that has set a precedent for the last 25-35 years and continues to set standards of excellence for its architectural design and significance.
Initiated in 1986 within the Hayden Tract, a former industrial site bounding Central Los Angeles and Culver City, Conjunctive Points – The New City began as simple additions and subtractions to an existing collection of warehouses. With architect Eric Owen Moss designing or renovating one eclectic building at a time, the project set contemporary standards for adaptive re-use, launched the concept of creative office space, and positioned architecture as a method to uncover new social and civic opportunities.
The land developers Frederick and Laurie Samitaur Smith had acquired a significant collection of buildings along the tract, many of which were vacant wood-framed, long-span warehouses and manufacturing spaces. The resulting exchange of ideas across three decades has reversed the area’s plummeting property values and rising crime rates and become a subject of study for the planners, architects, and policy makers who are rethinking cities.
8522 National Boulevard, the first project Moss designed in the Hayden Tract, set the architectural and organizational precedent for what is now known as Conjunctive Points – The New City. At first, Moss’ careful remodels and idiosyncratic buildings with playful, singular names—Umbrella, Beehive, Pterodactyl—attracted small start-ups and young entrepreneurs providing music, graphics, advertising, and post-production services. Since then, major companies such as Nike, Converse, and, most recently, Beats, GoPro, and Apple, have followed in the neighborhood. In an area once devoid of purpose, Conjunctive Points – The New City has prompted significant job creation with an estimated 15,000 newly employed workers flocking there. It remains one of the Los Angeles area’s most desired office locations.
Visit AIA’s website to learn more about the Twenty-five Year Award.
Related Stories
| Jan 20, 2015
Daring hotel design scheme takes the shape of cut amethyst stone
The Dutch practice NL Architects designed a proposal for a chain of hotels shaped like a rock cut in half to reveal a gemstone inside.
| Jan 20, 2015
Avery Associates unveils plans for London's second-tallest tower
The 270-meter tower, dubbed the No. 1 Undershaft, will stand next to the city's "Cheesegrater" building.
| Jan 20, 2015
AIA course: Building with brick, stone, and masonry
Earn 1.0 AIA/CES learning units by studying this article and successfully completing the online exam.
| Jan 19, 2015
HAO unveils designs for a 3D movie museum in China
New York-based HAO has released designs for the proposed Bolong 3D Movie Museum & Mediatek in Tianjin.
| Jan 19, 2015
Gaudi’s first work outside Spain will be a chapel in Chile
Nearly 100 years after Antoni Gaudí’s death, Chile will begin constructing a chapel using his designs.
| Jan 19, 2015
Architecture for Humanity closes office, plans to file for bankruptcy
After more than 15 years of work, the nonprofit design group Architecture for Humanity has closed its San Francisco office and plans to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection.
| Jan 19, 2015
Four Seasons tower will be Boston's tallest
On Jan. 14, 2015, developer Carpenter & Company and executives from the Four Seasons broke ground on the Four Seasons Hotel & Private Residences, which will become the tallest building in Boston at 699 feet.
| Jan 19, 2015
Mystery buyer pays highest ever price for NYC residence
The 89th and 90th floors of 157 W. 57th Street have just been purchased for more than $100 million.
| Jan 17, 2015
When is a train station not a train station? When it’s a performance venue
You can catch a train at Minneapolis’s new Target Field Station. You can also share in an experience. That’s what ‘Open Transit’ is all about.
| Jan 16, 2015
Artsy lifeguard stations will brighten Toronto’s snowy beach
Five winning designs have been unveiled for lifeguard stands that will double as public space art installations on Toronto's beach.