Seth Trotter's Senior Project Booklet

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Seth TrotterSenior ProjectFall2008AdvisorBillAdams

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Table of Contents

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Précis

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Topic

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Methodology

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Client Profile

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Site’s Contextual Relationships

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History and Cultural Division

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Context

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Site Assessment and Analysis

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Climate Analysis

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Program Description

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Program Space Summary

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Program Data Sheets

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Code Search

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Planning Regulations

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Interview/Expert Witness

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Annotated Bibliography

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Seth TrotterSenior ProjectFall2008AdvisorBillAdams

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plaza level 1/16”=1’

upper level 1/16”=1’

los angeles street elevation Seth TrotterSenior ProjectFall2008AdvisorBillAdams

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interior partitions

carbon fiber skin

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primary steel structure

civic mall elevation Seth TrotterSenior ProjectFall2008AdvisorBillAdams

secondary steel structure

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walking street view

olvera street view Seth TrotterSenior ProjectFall2008AdvisorBillAdams

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La Placita

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Vickory Brunswig Building

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Pico House

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Merced Theater

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Asian American Museum

United States District Court

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Los Angeles Childrens Museum (former)

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Seth TrotterSenior ProjectFall2008AdvisorBillAdams

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R-30

low-E glazing

5-stage automotive grade white paint

carbon-fiber shear panel w/ flanking carbon fiber flange for rigidity

6” steel tubing w/ welded steel joints for carbon fiber panel connection

white concrete over steel deck hexagonal 6” steel tubing floor frame );

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glass/panel/interior connection

wall section 1”=1’

Seth TrotterSenior ProjectFall2008AdvisorBillAdams

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PrĂŠcis

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I intend to create a mixed-use corridor that responds to the daily rhythms of Angelinos and renews community connections that were seperated by city expansion.

The city of Los Angeles is a vast and unique urban landscape.

Capitalistic endeavors have created large voids in the cities urban fabric, as a result, the city remains inaccessible and too congested.

A culture of car usage has been continually reinforced into the residents of the Los Angeles metro region. The city is in need of urban spaces that provide easy, safe, interesting pedestrian passageways between the existing urban cores. The spaces need to have plenty of public spaces that create inviting spaces yet that bring in a variety of demographics. The connection of Los Angeles’ urban cores with pedestrian friendly passageways would help break the city away from its current dependence on cars and might just get more Angelinos outside.

The project will focus on the reclamation of urban spaces. The site is located between Little Tokyo and the Pueblo District and was chosen because of its adjacencies to these strong urban spaces.

The project will strive to make cross cultural connections and strong urban connections in the city and between the cultural centers.

Seth TrotterSenior ProjectFall2008AdvisorBillAdams

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Topic

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The project proposition is located between the Pueblo District and Little Tokyo. The proposition includes the redesign of the existing Los Angeles Mall and the development of pedestrian corridor between the two urban cores. The area between the Pueblo District and Little Tokyo has been a major dividing line in the city since Los Angeles started expanding away from its origin, a city setup by the Law of the Indies, towards a polycentric main street city. The existing Los Angeles Mall complex originally intended to link the Pueblo District and Little Tokyo, but has only added to the division between the two communities. The project proposes to create a corridor that will create physical and cultural ties in the city of Los Angeles.

The spaces will have mixed occupancies and will try to respect the historic and cultural context that is presently embedded within the site. The current site has become a highly controlled environment that is shut off to public access after 7pm; this project proposes to create a space that can become a public corridor that does not need to be closed off to the public during non-business hours.

Seth TrotterSenior ProjectFall2008AdvisorBillAdams

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Methodology

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The proposed site sits on a crucial void within the city, thus social issues will be the driving force for the architectural language. The project should express the two cultures in a distinct and prominent manner, yet make significant cohesive moves towards integration of the two urban cores. Since the site is also within the current Civic mall, the move away from the corner being taken away must be addressed to make a strong statement about the existence of cultural forces in a political world.

www.olverastreet.com

www.fotothing.com

Seth TrotterSenior ProjectFall2008AdvisorBillAdams

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Client Profile

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The Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles (CRA/LA) is an organization dedicated to the redevelopment of the city of Los Angeles. Redevelopment areas are established

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To foster job creation and establish an environment

that will attract and sustain private investment; •

to maintain and increase the supply of housing for low-

and moderate income households; •

To renovate, remove or replace deteriorated or dilapi-

dated structures.

CRA/LA adopts comprehensive plans for redevelopment areas. These plans provide guidelines and strategies for removing physical and economic blight and provide a vision, goals and timetables for generating growth and new opportunities.

Redevelopment plans are created with political , business, and community participation. The plans are the roadmap for spurring growth, creating new housing and improving the quality of life and general welfare of the people who live and work in and around redevelopment areas.

Seth TrotterSenior ProjectFall2008AdvisorBillAdams

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Site’s Contextual Relationships

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Downtown Los Angeles is organized into districts of programs with relative similarity.

The project’s site is located on the

edge of the Civic Mall. This Civic Mall is a formal organization of Government buildings, which maintains a strong linear axis from the LA Department of Water and Power (DPW) to the City Hall. This axis is currently being master planned by Frank Gehry to create green clad walkways and public space within the city. The projects site is located south of the city hall, therefore is not affected by Gehry’s masterplan. However, the site does lay within the civic center, in a minor Judicial axis. As a result, the project must address the Judicial axis of the Civic Mall.

But, prior to the construction of the Civic Mall, the building site was the location of the historic Bella Union Hotel and the Los Angeles Star Newspaper. The site is registered as a CA-656 and CA-789 California State Historical Landmark. Neither of the registered structures exists anymore and are both marked by two plaques on the site.

The landscape architect of the mall was Howard Troller, he designed the site so that it addresses North Main Street in an open fashion, yet is closed off to Los Angeles Street. But even the North Main Street entrance is not completely visible from the street, as a 3 foot elevation increase and landscaping block complete view of the plaza. As a result, the plaza is almost completely unused outside of business hours, and is closed to the public after 7pm everyday. The projects interior courtyards provide serene retreats to people who work in the Seth TrotterSenior ProjectFall2008AdvisorBillAdams

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adjacent office towers, yet are not commonly used by either of the adjacent ethnic communities; this demonstrates one of the major failures of the existing site. The site houses a four story submerged parking garage for the public and the Federal Building that the underground Mall is connected to. Also on the site is a federal judge’s office, this is directly adjacent to the main courtyard. The mall provides two main access points to the Federal building directly West: bridge over Temple Street, shopping street under Temple Street.

The site’s adjacency to the historic Pueblo district was severed in the 1950’s by the construction of the 101 freeway, and currently has a vast vacant space between the two programs.

Similarly, the Federal building and other Government buildings block program’s adjacency to Little Tokyo. These communities have strong urban cores that attract consistent pedestrian traffic year round. Little Tokyo has been the location of recent urban redevelopment, including the addition of MOCA @ the Geffen, the Japanese-American Museum, and housing developments. These urban improvements have created an opportunity in the urban fabric for the connection of these urban cores. The project will address cultural and ideological conventions that affect the site in attempt to address the needs of the Civic Mall, yet providing a strong statement to the community that Los Angeles is a multi-cultural community committed to the development of a strong urban culture and cross-cultural interaction.

Seth TrotterSenior ProjectFall2008AdvisorBillAdams

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History and Cultural Division

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City growth is a natural process, fueled by expanding economies and population growth; a cities limit will only be restricted by boundaries imposed upon the expansion. Historically these boundaries have consisted of city gates, topographic features, close relationship to resources, et cetera. Boundaries play an important role in the shaping of a city, boundaries allow for urbanization and centralization. Los Angeles is a unique city, established by the Spaniards using the Law of the Indies; the original core of the city was set up traditionally (Ryan, 2006). Thus Los Angeles was originally a centrifugal city (Steiner, 1981) and much of the cities original businesses and industry was located adjacent to the plaza (Ryan, 2006).

As Los Angeles was invaded by the United States in 1847, a mixed use core continued to strengthen the centricity of the cities core, the Anglo and Spaniard urbanization led to the development of a city core that started developing characteristics of a “Main street” (Ryan, 2006). Los Angeles’ centrality was subsequently developed into a “Main Street” city (Hise, 1996).

This point in history marks an important part in the development of Los Angeles, the city faces divergent trends: Westward Anglo movement, Plaza oriented Hispanic. In affect, this trend demonstrates the first racial compartmentalization of the city of Los Angeles. The Hispanic community continued to view the plaza as a central place of gathering and commerce. The Anglo community created a new business center that was separate and less inhibited by the orgaSeth TrotterSenior ProjectFall2008AdvisorBillAdams

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nization of the cities plaza. During this transitional period, Los Angeles’ economy was shifting. While California is traditionally an agricultural center, its agriculture which was 60 percent of the economy in 1860, drops to 30 percent by 1920 (Shevky, 1949). Agriculture was subsequently replaced by manufacturing and a large increase in service industries and by 1920 constituted 40 percent of the economy (Shevky, 1949). By 1940, agriculture declined to only 3 percent of the economy, manufacturing was 27 percent and services were 68 percent (Shevky, 1949). Los Angeles’ starts to develop a strong sector of services, this is a common theme among cities in the West, as San Francisco shares similar percentage breakdowns during this period (Shevky, 1949). Conversely, cities such as Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Cincinnati demonstrate strong industrial build up, and less emphasis on the development of services, although services still constituted half of their economy, and agriculture remained at a percent of the economy (Shevky, 1949). The trend of a service based economy has continued as a mainstay of the Southern California economy to this day, and is evidenced by California’s spending habits, placing its economy as the 7th largest economy in the World (International Monetary Fund).

In the 1940’s Los Angeles had developed a strong North-South axis of industrial development, through communities such as Boyle Heights, Huntington Park and Glendale (Shevky, 1949). At this time, another notable trend can be seen, the population of Craftsmen, Operators and Laborers was concentrated heavily south of Boyle Heights and CulSeth TrotterSenior ProjectFall2008AdvisorBillAdams

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ver City, while professionals, clerical, domestic and services were concentrated North of those cities. The communities of Wilshire, Westlake and Hollywood had high percentages of the higher class of occupations. Similarly, but slightly less dense, communities east of Los Angeles contained a less skilled population (see Fig _____). Developing along of Los Angeles is a rural farming structure that was the result of Los Angeles decline in agriculture. The cities growth created an even larger demand on agricultural products, yet the urbanization of Los Angeles created less opportunities for the once agriculturally based economy to produce agriculture (see Fig _____). The first half 1900’s was a period when the southern Californian small town developed; one of the main contributors to this growth is the migration of Mid-West settlers.

Before the Great Depression Iowan and Illinois farmers were the largest migrant group, but during the depression an even larger group of migrants went west, this group expanded to include Texas, Missouri and Oklahoma (see Fig ____). The migrants had tendencies to form communities that resembled the “Main street� typology and setup a lifestyle similar to their place of origin. These communities were generally not racially diverse, yet maintained a certain amount of diversity among social classes (Shevky, 1949). These communities did not develop with the idea that they were a part of Los Angeles, but rather had ideas of creating a new rural life. As Los Angeles expanded these communities would subsequently grafted into the urban structure of the city.

Seth TrotterSenior ProjectFall2008AdvisorBillAdams

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Communities that developed around Los Angeles faced strong racial segregation. Although Los Angeles started as a racially undivided city, its divided development of a “Main Street” Anglo city and a “Plaza” Hispanic city led to strong divisions. By 1940 the index of segregation for each respective racial group was 17.81 African American, 7.32 Asian, 5.84 Russian, 4.63 Mexican, 3.22 Italian, 1.34 Scandinavian, 1.22 Germans, 1.19 Canadians, 1.03 Native Whites (Shevky, 1949). The African American, Asian, and Russian communities were the most segregated, and the boroughs of Los Angeles that exist today are as a result of these communities taking root. Although the Mexican community was not the most segregated, they were however the most isolated from High class society. African Americans had similar numbers of High class with other minority groups such as Asians and Italians (Shevky, 1949). Groups such as the Canadians, Germans, Scandinavians had evenly distributed social statuses, with the Russians having more lower class and the others having more higher class populations (Shevky, 1949). Also, at this time the population of Los Angeles had become heavily Anglo American, as the population was near 70 percent Anglo (Shevky, 1949).

Seth TrotterSenior ProjectFall2008AdvisorBillAdams

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Context

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Walking from Olvera Street

Seth TrotterSenior ProjectFall2008AdvisorBillAdams

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Seth TrotterSenior ProjectFall2008AdvisorBillAdams

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Seth TrotterSenior ProjectFall2008AdvisorBillAdams

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Site Assessment and Analyis

Seth TrotterSenior ProjectFall2008AdvisorBillAdams

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Seth TrotterSenior ProjectFall2008Advisor