|
|
East Valley Solid Resources Management Complex
Sun Valley, California
Photography:
John McNeil, City of Los Angeles
Bureau of Engineering, Architectural Division
The East Valley Solid Resources Management Complex is sited on a former dump site, which was rehabilitated by excavating and re-compacting existing soil. This new complex, which was constructed to replace a conglomeration of temporary facilities, is now used as a permanent, multi-agency site by the City of Los Angeles’ Bureau of Sanitation and Department of General Services.
The complex consists of a two-story Bureau of Sanitation administration building housing offices, a training center, vehicle dispatch center, fitness/wellness facility and locker rooms. There is also a General Services vehicle maintenance facility, waste container storage building, and a container repair building. The complex was constructed with a hazardous waste drop-off facility and an alternative fueling center with multiple fueling types, including diesel, LNG, CNG, and gasoline.
The City of Los Angeles, selected concrete masonry block as the main material for this project based on its proven track record of other CMU buildings previously designed and constructed for its facilities. CMU conveys a sense of performance and is a particularly appropriate material for this complex. It was chosen for its extended life-cycle, low maintenance, thermal mass advantage, improved air handling efficiency, reduced potential for mold growth, greater fire safety, and improved acoustical performance.
A very wide palette of concrete masonry block products was ultimately employed throughout as perimeter, fence, and building walls, including split-face, precision and burnished block in an array of colors.
The administration building is constructed of burnished block to emphasize the building’s importance and its inviting aesthetic quality. Among the buildings on site, this building will have the highest occupancy, therefore the designer wanted the most refined material used here. A matrix of colors was employed in the building wall design to aesthetically pull in and reflect the great variety of colors used throughout the site. This building uses light and shade, mass and void, indoors and outdoors, to create a vocabulary of contrasts in the architecture.
Architects:
City of Los Angeles
Department of Public Works
Bureau of Engineering, Architectural Division
650 South Spring
Street
Los Angeles, CA 90014
Hoi V. Luc
Project Architect,
City of Los Angeles
Richard Itomura
Design Architect,
City of Los Angeles
Construction
Management:
City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works
Bureau of Engineering Construction Management
Division
Structural
Engineer:
City of Los Angeles, Department of Public Works
Bureau of Engineering Structural Division
General
Contractor:
Amoroso Construction
Masonry
Contractor:
Reycon Construction
Block Producer:
Angelus Block Company, Inc.
Owner:
City of Los Angeles
