Detail of the project ed. 2016

west­­­wood-unit­ed-methodist-church / Lehrer Archi­tects LA

Design­er  Michael B. Lehrer
Loca­tion  10497 Wilshire Blvd., Los Ange­les CA 90024
Design Team  

Lehrer Archi­tects LA
Michael B. Lehrer, FAIA
Ner­in Kadribegov­ic, AIA
Travis Frankel
Robin Sakahara
TIm Jordan
Year  2008
Pho­to credits  

LEHRER ARCHI­TECTS LA

Pho­to external

Project descrip­tion

PROJECT DESCRIP­TION:

This project illus­trates how there are no throw-away spaces. It hon­ors the city and it hon­ors the (Wilshire) Boule­vard by cre­at­ing a qua­si-pub­­lic pock­et park out of what was des­tined to be peo­­ple-less driveway. 

The sim­ple pro­gram, a bath­room addi­tion with planters, was oppor­tunis­ti­cal­ly lever­aged into archi­tec­ture as building/landscape/urban fur­ni­ture to cre­ate a new arche­type — the qua­si-pub­­lic pock­et park.

BACK­GROUND:

The project came about when the Church leased its huge park­ing lot to a senior hous­ing devel­op­er for 55 years. The space between the new hous­ing and the Church was going to be filled with a large dri­ve­way lined with planters, which also pre­sent­ed a sig­nif­i­cant acces­si­bil­i­ty (wheel­chair access) prob­lem. The crit­i­cal urban contribution—and new (Wilshire) Boule­vard archetype—is trans­form­ing the ubiq­ui­tous dri­ve­way into a bona fide pock­et park.

Every inch of mar­gin­al space was con­sol­i­dat­ed and orches­trat­ed to cre­ate grand pro­ces­sion­al spaces, and new, found gar­dens. The new stairs, ramps, bench­es, and gar­dens, pro­vide effi­cient, acces­si­ble cir­cu­la­tion and the space around the Church, cre­at­ing a series+ of dis­crete places to walk, sit gath­er, and contemplate. 

In addi­tion to pro­vid­ing a strik­ing new set­ting for the Church, the aus­tere beau­ty of con­crete poured-in-place archi­tec­ture and seam­less­ly inte­grat­ed land­scape pro­vide a won­der­ful ameni­ty for the parish­ioners and inhab­i­tants of the senior hous­ing complex.

Illus­tra­tive project report
Down­load report

Pho­to internal

Tech­ni­cal drawings

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