Architecture : Southland Sweeps Innovative Design Honors

By EVELYN DE WOLFE

June 14, 1992 12 AM PT

Share via
- Email
- Facebook
- X
- LinkedIn
- Threads
- Reddit
- WhatsApp

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Adding to Southern California’s growing stature as one of the nation’s leaders in innovative architecture was its recent sweep of all eight of the 1992 Honor Awards presented by the California Council of the American Institute of Architects.

The eight award recipients selected from 300 entries through California included a meticulously restored 1925 Hollywood movie palace, an office building with a whimsical binocular-shaped entrance and a hillside home that unfolds into multi-levels of living space. With the exception of one project in Orange County, all others originated in Los Angeles.

Now in its 10th year, the CCAIA Design Awards program recognizes design excellence, in a broad range of design and planning services, by California architects for clients in California and around the world.

Jury members in the competition for the honor awards include architects Michael Graves of Princeton, N.J., Hugh Newell Jacobsen of Washington D.C. and Terry Sargent of Atlanta.

Models, drawings and photographs of the winning projects will be exhibited from Monday through June 31 at Pacific Design Center’s Blue Rotunda.

The restoration of El Capitan Theatre, a Hollywood Boulevard landmark owned by Pacific Theatres Corp., was accomplished by Fields & Devereaux Architects and the design talents of Disney Corp. after layers of aging false walls were removed. The gilded delicate tracery of the original proscenium fan arch is now fully restored and dramatically lighted.

Another winning entry is a 1934 low-rise building on North Canon Drive in Beverly Hills remodeled by Rockefeller/Hricak Architects into retail shops, a project that required extensive restoration to uncover the chevrons, pilasters and iron work of the original Art-Deco structure.

The Chiat/Day/Mojo Office Building on Main Street in Venice, a project by Frank O. Gehry & Associates, reflects the dense but low-scale development that the Coastal Commission envisions for this beach community. The winning project sits atop three levels of underground parking and its entry features a giant binocular created by centrally placed cylinders, each topped by a skylight, conceived and created in collaboration with Claes Oldenberg and Coosje van Bruggen.

The Yudell/Beebe House, a private residence in Malibu, was designed by and for architect Buzz Yudell and his wife, a graphic designer and avid gardener. The courtyard house is built on a hillside lot and is reminiscent of farmhouses in California and other warm coastal climates.

The principal characteristic of the winning Civic Center Library Site Parking Structure in Santa Ana is its close proximity to two dominant buildings, a courthouse and the public library. The primary design considerations by IBI Group/L. Paul Zajfen Architects revolved around reducing the apparent scale of the structure and blending it into the overall complex and pedestrian plaza.

An award-winning public facility was the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power’s Central District headquarters, Phase 2, at Alameda and Ducommun streets. The architects’ approach to the site was to liken the yard to a campus with identifiable exterior spaces and to alter the sense of bulk and sharp roof lines of the structures.

In designing the Salick Health Care Corporate Headquarters in West Los Angeles, the firm of Morphosis Architects transformed an existing building in an area with strict height restrictions, by utilizing the infrastructure as a departure point for the new administrative office space and related support functions.

The Montana Collection, a new retail/commercial building in Santa Monica designed by Kanner Architects with deference to the residential character of the adjacent community, features a facade broken down into various architectural elements to reduce the scale.

Besides the honor awards for best design, three special awards were also given.

CCAIA’s Firm Award went to Moore Ruble Yudell in Santa Monica for producing consistently distinguished architecture for a period of 10 years or more. Sea Ranch Condominium I designed by Moore Lyndon Turnbull Whitaker won the 25th-Year Award, which recognizes a project completed 25 to 50 years ago.

San Francisco architect Joseph Esherick, the AIA’s Gold Medal winner in 1988, is the recipient of the first Maybeck Award which honors individual California architects “for outstanding lifelong achievement in producing consistently distinguished design.”

HONOR AWARD RECIPIENTS

Project/Location: El Capitan Theatre/Los Angeles Historic Restoration

Architect: Fields & Devereaux Architects, AIA/Los Angeles

AIA Chapter of Architect: Los Angeles/AIA

Contractor: Turner Construction Co.

Project/Location: 460 North Canon Drive/Beverly Hills Historic Restoration of Low-rise Building into Retail Shops

Architect: Rockefeller/Hricak Architects, Venice

AIA Chapter of Architect: Los Angeles/AIA

Contractor: CPC--Century Pacific Construction

Project/Location: Los Angeles Department of Water & Power Central District Headquarters, Phase II/Los Angeles

Architect: Clements & Clements/Benito A. Sinclair & Associates and Barton Phelps & Associates, Associated Architect for Design

AIA Chapter of Architect: Los Angeles/AIA