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but one where those uses relate to one another and begin to share a single identity. Whereas a mixed use building uses floor plates and walls to seperate programmatic functions and human interaction, a hybridized structure creates vertical boulevards and multiple story atriums that blur the lines between programmatic uses and starts to produce a microcosm of the city within the building.

In the modern context, Rem Koolhaus jumstarted the idea of a hybridized architecture in 1996 with his proposal of the “Hyperbuilding” in Thailand. As a response to the overcrowded city of Bangkok, Koolhaus proposed a self- contained city for 120,000 people. The proposal stripped down the technical aspects of the city and in order “to achieve urban variety and complexity, the building is structured as a metaphor of the city: towers constitute streets, horizontal elements are parks, volumes are districts, and diagonals are boulevards.6” While the building was never actualized, the ideas and aesthetic proposed in this project have been incorporated in recent projects across Asia. Such projects include; BIG’s “Cross # Towers” in Seoul, MVRDV’s “Vertical City” in Jakarta, and Takenaka Corporation’s Skycity 1000 in Tokyo.7 While the hybridized typology has begun to manifest itself in the eastern part of the world, this thesis will strive to understand how such a typology can exist and contribute to an urban environment within the United States.

What is urban?

This section will discuss the characteristics of the urban city. Physically urban is classified by characteristics such as population, population density, geographic area, boundaries, but the requirements for what is considered urban vary by county, state, and country. This section will also go on to discuss the theory of Jane Jacobs and Le Corbusier and what they deemed a city. Finally I will discuss the concept of megacities and their relation to this thesis.

The following is filler text for this section: The proposed hybridized skyscraper will be placed in the downtown core of Los Angeles, a city known across the world for its horizontal development and urban sprawl. Los Angeles’ dependency on the automobile has also pushed the pedestrian off the street and taken away a key element in creating a strong and vibrant community. More specifically the project will cover a couple of lots bounded by S Figueroa Street on the north, S Flower Street on the south, W Pico Blvd on the west and W 11th Street on the east. The site currently contains two street level parking lots and sits on top of the Pico metro stop. The site sits adjacent to the newly constructed LA Live