A site located on the shared water border between Glendale and Atwater in Los Angeles becomes home to a performance arts center, cafe, indoor garden, boathouse and beach pavillion. The site is currently an underused park negelected by the community but adjacent to two burgoneing neighborhoods. The bike path and potential use for the river as a kayak venue pull people to the area and this project, I think will give them something else to explore.
The forms are constructed out of curved concrete and glass with steel supports. The shapes are derived from a path making exercise that was expolored at the original location, where I strolled around the exisiting park looking for ways to find spaces that didn't seem accessible before.
This is the performance area, which is designed to host about 150 people. Its programing is located on the second floor and it overlooks the river with a window backdrop that highlights the pedestrian bridge which spans the water.
Here is the performance area in sectional view.
Below is the indoor garden area that measures approx 2000 sq feet. The rooftop and the nested rooms on the second floor allow the botanists to control the amount of sunlight and shade the enclosed plants will receive. Its in close proximity to the cafe to keep the kitchen stocked.
Here are the site renders followed by plans and sections. You can see the scale of the project pretty well here and yes its masive. If needed the project could be cut back in scale and the site could refrain from much of the development by cutting out the ground floors and reworking the placement of the structures. However the nested rooms and curves of the structures should stay.
This view of the ground floor nested room and stairwell gives you a great idea of scale. This is the downstairs of the indoor garden so plenty of room for plants or other temporary programming.
This view highlights the beach pavillion on the Atwater side of the river. Currently its passed by on the daily, but this one story structure could house a lounge and bathrooms to convience the neighbors to come to the waterfront.
First floor and second floor plans with a walkable path and path views as well as building sections are below.
