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
| Jul 18, 2013
Top Government Sector Architecture Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Stantec, HOK, HDR top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest government sector architecture and architecture/engineering firms in the U.S.
| Jul 18, 2013
Do third-corridor designs actually work for healthcare environments?
A recent study of a nursing unit assessed whether the space's third corridor does what it was intended to do: reduce noise and distraction to patients and nursing staff.
| Jul 18, 2013
LEGO takes on the iconic Sydney Opera House
This September, LEGO will expand its LEGO Creator Expert series with a 2,989-brick model of the iconic Sydney Opera House.
| Jul 17, 2013
Top Multifamily Construction Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Lend Lease, Clark Group, Balfour Beatty top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest multifamily contractors and construction management firms in the United States.
| Jul 17, 2013
Top Multifamily Engineering Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
STV, URS, AECOM top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest multifamily engineering and engineering/architecture firms in the United States.
| Jul 17, 2013
Top Multifamily Architecture Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
IBI Group, Niles Bolton, Perkins Eastman top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest multifamily architecture and architecture/engineering firms in the United States.
| Jul 17, 2013
CBRE recognizes nation's best green research projects
A rating system for comparative tenant energy use and a detailed evaluation of Energy Star energy management strategies are among the green research projects to be honored by commercial real estate giant CBRE Group.
| Jul 17, 2013
Should city parking space requirements be abolished?
Some cities are deliberately discouraging construction of new parking spaces by allowing the construction of buildings with a lower ratio of parking spaces to dwellings (as low as 0.75 spaces per residence).
| Jul 17, 2013
Retail store openings at five-year high
Analysis by RBC Capital Markets shows that U.S. retailers are planning to open 42,757 stores over the next 12 months, and some 83,700 locations over the next two years, both five-year highs.
| Jul 16, 2013
As the U.S. economy sputters back to life, contractors wait for the green light on projects [2013 Giants 300 Report]
There are enough positive indictors in the economy to justify greenlighting projects, but building owners and developers remain reluctant to pull the trigger.