daly genik architects
features
the firm ////////////////////////////////// Santa Monica-based Daly Genik Architects (DGA) is a 20-person firm with unique ties to both academia and the professional design community. DGA was launched in 1990 as a partnership between architects Kevin Daly and Chris Genik, who is the current director of the undergraduate program at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). The firm initially focused on residential work but has expanded its scope since the CNCA relationship began in 1998. Recent DGA designs include two affordable-housing complexes, a new art center for the Harvard University Art Museums, three custom residences, offices for BMW/ DesignworksUSA, a master plan for the UCLA Music Department, and the Edison Language Academy in Santa Monica, CA.
at a glance ////////////////////////////// Location: Santa Monica, CA Employees: 20 On the Web : dalygenik.com
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Photo: Tim Griffth
Photo: Tim Griffth
the developers //////////////////////////////// Pueblo Nuevo is a nonprofit community-development corporation founded in 1993 by Philip Lance, to help revitalize and redevelop the poor neighborhoods of Central Los Angeles by providing a ladder out of poverty for the youth of the city. Their community-development strategies include vital parent-support programs and community health services. Early developments included a thrift store and a janitorial company owned by employees. In 1999, Pueblo Nuevo founded the Camino Nuevo Charter Academy to build a network of public charter schools that now serves more than 1,600 students.
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Photo: Tim Griffth
sides of every classroom, which provides the opportunity for natural ventilation most of the year. “In some projects, like the high school, we took advantage of the mass of reinforced masonry construction,” Daly says, “to provide passive cooling to the classrooms.”
design with an eye on academia
Natural light is one of the predominant features in all four CNCA projects. At the high school, natural light floods the classrooms because of the way the two wings of the structure interact. In addition to making a bold graphic statement, the perforated, corrugated metal façade dampens the street noise outside and shades the building from the hot California sun.
For Daly, DGA, and PND, the CNCA projects have been a resounding success. The bustling, functional, and beautiful schools truly represent a new paradigm for charter-school construction. “It is unusual in that it is a small-scale series of projects that has allowed the school to respond to the demands of the community and adjust their tactics to the finances they have available,” Daly says. “Most school districts are required to operate in a top-down manner: they commit to a building program, and it could be 5–10 years before a student is sitting at a desk. The CNCA project is more agile; they are rethinking their master plan constantly.”
At the middle school, the façade of the former office building was modified to allow natural daylight control through a scrim of perforated panels. In the former warehouse, the interior street created between the two buildings remains open to the sky and provides natural light to each classroom. At the elementary school, curved, sculptural lattices of Nexwood, a recycled-wood product, shade the building and help regulate sunlight in the 12 classrooms.
The projects also fit well into DGA’s mission and project portfolio. “We are a design practice,” Daly says, “so we do not specialize in specific building types; we work on houses, housing, and public commissions like parks. We like the challenge of unique projects that can’t be characterized as a building type because it is an opportunity to really understand a program and configure a building specifically for that purpose.” abq
american builders quarterly nov/dec 2010
73