Selma Offices

The mixed use offices at Selma are an example of a hyper-rational project that allows site conditions to inform its most dramatic moves while playfully challenging the typology of the old Medici Villas. Conceptually rooted in the Metabolist Movement’s laws of functional transformation, the Selma offices are organized as a series of stacked horizontal tubes which have been pushed and pulled to create balconies and green space along with façade articulation. Tenants of the office building are empowered to dictate their place in the building system, affording them more or less balcony space, depending on their spatial needs.

Tubes swivel along a pivot point, creating wedges of space which allow deeper penetration of natural light between the two adjacent buildings. This move activates the pedestrian entry, funneling users from the street to the entrance on the eastern side. The pedestrian screen wall mirrors the aggregation of the office tubes at a much smaller scale, resulting in a perceived pixel effect- an inversion of the material construction of the Medici villas with the finer aggregate creating the base rather than rough hewn stones. The Villa typology is further skewed with an elevated exterior courtyard on the third floor. Occupants enter the building into a vertical penetration connecting the lobby to the courtyard above.

Status: Unbuilt

Project Type: Creative Office Building; Building Type: New; Size: 72,000 sf

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Partner: Hagy Belzberg

Project Manager: Barry Gartin

Project Team: Bill Bowen, Chris Arntzen, David Cheung, Philip Lee

Awards:
2008 AIA LA Next Design Award, Citation Award

Publications:
New Concept Architecture 2 (China), FORM, BOB : International Magazine of Space Design (Korea)