CultureNOW | A Celebration of Culture & Community

Michael Lehrer describes the Spring Street Park project in Downtown LA, a public / private design collaboration between his firm and the city. The park, build on land that used to be parking lots, is designed to provide a wide variety of different social environments to serve the community. 

Michael Lehrer talks about the design of a private home in Santa Monica Canyon, as well as the six buildings his firm completed in south LA, for an agency called "Restore Neighborhoods Los Angeles." Both the large, Modernist home and the smaller buildings are driven by "indoor / outdoor relationships" and long views.

The Architect talks about the design of the new New York office for the Barbarian Group especially the decision to have the entire company working at the same table.  

The client was a bank. They were the only tenant of a large new rental building which was modified to accommodate them.  In addition to the addition of atriums, and a very sustainable design, the project also includes an Activity Based Working platform where the offices can be reconfigured for specific tasks which is very efficient and was never used before in Australia.  

For the Macquarie Group, this was an opportunity to consolidate its London offices into a single building. The architect was fortunate to begin working on the project while the building was being constructed allowing some of the ideas about workspace to be incorporated into the building design such the atrium which was carved out of the existing structure.  

Designing an office for GLG near Grand Central Terminal was an interesting opportunity for the architect to incorporate some of the innovations he has been working on such as Activity Based Workplaces into the design.  This was the first time the highly efficient and sustainable concept where there is no desk ownership was actually used in the US.  Other highlights include 'horizontal skylights'. GLG describes itself as "the world’s largest membership for professional learning and expertise". GLG took a lease in a building across the street from Grand Central Terminal.  The building at one point was the tallest building in New York, but was eclipsed shortly after it was completed by the Chrysler Building.  It has very large floor plates and the lease was for the 3rd and 4th floors. The design involved opening up a large lightwell between the floors.  Because they are low, the 'skylights' created were horizontal. 
It was also the first time the Activity Based Workplace was used in the US.  

Richard Amromin, artistic director of New Town, talks about "City Speaks," a public art piece that incorporates sound.  The sound pieces from "City Speaks II," a public art project in Los Angeles, are heard in this podcast.

Richard Amromin, artistic director of New Town, talks about "City Speaks," a public art piece that incorporates sound. 

The artist talks about how he came up with the idea for the mural, selected the site in the library, researched the history of Inglewood and how he decided to encompass all generations and all the people of the city.  Among other things, he included text from a letter from a resident to Theodore Roosevelt, historic street cars from Market Street, even the space shuttle's trip through Inglewood.  He also talks about how he fabricated the piece.  

Winner of an invited competition to transform an existing office that Google bought in Mountain View into their corporate headquarters, Clive Wilkinson shares the experience of designing the workplace.  He talks about many of the issues that impacted the project: the corporate culture, sustainability, and the constraints of time and the existing building.  It was originally intended to be a temporary facility; it is still in operation and has won several major design awards.