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LOS
ANGELES PUBLIC LIBRARY
WILL AND ARIEL DURANT BRANCH
HOLLYWOOD CALIFORNIA
Photography:
Grant Mudford
Jury
Comments: This nicely designed library appeared
to offer comfortable and inviting spaces. The building
façade is interestingly proportioned and the blend of
masonry and glass block seems to reflect the context of the
neighborhood.
Situated prominently on a noisy, six-lane strip of
Sunset Boulevard, the library serves a diverse urban
community concerned equally with parking, maintenance, and
symbolic presence. Our design sides with commercial context,
rakes up to distant mountains, and retains a certain
institutional distinction.
Tall and hard-surfaced on the front, low and softly landscaped on the rear, the building confronts street scale and movement and answers problems of noise and durability. Reading areas border the sidewalk, engaging pedestrians and the lights and movement of cars through angled bays of sound resistant glass block. In lieu of the standard, hard to maintain planter, a concrete berm slopes to the sidewalk lessening building scale. The front rises as a plane, capped by strip-scale, three-dimensional dedication signage that reads in an evanescent, non-commercial way. The foyer links the corner plaza and rear parking entrances with a community room for use when the library is closed. CMU walls and concrete paving continue the exterior character of the sidewalk into the reading room.
Inside curving ceilings, supported by articulated columns and girders, evenly reflect daylight from south-facing skylights to provide sufficient reading light without electric illumination. At the far end of the building, a court opens to the sky continuing interior space outward. In the story telling room, a free form, structural glass window gives kids a wobbly view into the court.
Exposed concrete masonry supplies seismic resistance, noise abatement, and durable finish. Its 12” x 12” module and raked joints establish scale and texture. Used freely to form building walls, fences and planters, the “ground face” colored CMU initiated an earthy palette of concrete, metal siding, and painted steel elements that sets the building off from its commercial neighbors.
ARCHITECT:
Barton Phelps & Associates, Architects and Planners
5514
Wilshire Blvd., 10th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Barton
Phelps, FAIA
Principal
David
Haggerty
Sr. Associate
Ronald
Rosell
Paul Duelo
Project Managers
STRUCTURAL
ENGINEER:
Nabih Youssef & Associates
GENERAL
CONTRACTOR:
R. B. & G. Construction Co., Inc.
MASONRY
CONTRACTOR:
Moody Masonry and Concrete
BLOCK
PRODUCER:
Angelus Block Company,
Inc.
Air Vol Block, Inc.
OWNER:
Los Angeles Public Library
