Open Form Architecture Blog

Few months ago, I got the chance to in­ter­view the archi­tect Law­rence Scarpa, prin­ci­pal of Pugh+Scarpa, on the im­pact of sus­tai­na­ble de­sign on the fi­gure and in­te­gra­tion of his own house, the So­lar Um­bre­lla, in Ve­nice. Ins­pi­red by Paul Rudolph’s Um­bre­lla House of 1953, the So­lar Um­bre­lla pro­vi­des a con­tem­po­rary rein­ven­tion of the so­lar canopy—a stra­tegy that pro­vi­des ther­mal pro­tec­tion in cli­ma­tes with in­tense exposures—using pho­to­vol­taic pa­nels to pro­vide 100% of the home’s energy needs.

To­day, with the Che­ro­kee Lofts, Pugh+Scarpa pushes “Green” edge de­sign to a su­pe­rior le­vel and breaks ground with another green mixed-use hou­sing pro­ject. For these archi­tects, sus­tai­na­bi­lity is al­ways con­si­de­red a top prio­rity, with the goal of buil­ding res­pon­si­ble li­ving for the 21st cen­tury. The archi­tect, Pugh+Scarpa, is a lea­der and pio­neer in green buil­ding, an un­pre­ce­den­ted two time win­ner of AIA Top 10 Green Buil­ding Award plus 100 other awards and accolades.

The buil­ding is lo­ca­ted at 751 N. Fair­fax just north of Mel­rose right around the cor­ner from the inc­rea­singly po­pu­lar and hip Mel­rose Heights Fashion Dis­trict which inc­lu­des Fred Se­gal, Adi­das, and Mark Ja­cobs among others. It also bor­ders West Holly­wood, is ¾ mile from the cen­ter of the Sun­set Strip, ¾ mile from The Grove shop­ping mall, a mile away from the Be­verly Cen­ter, and 3 blocks away from Whole Foods and Starbucks.

Che­ro­kee Lofts will be the most ad­van­ced and dis­tinc­tive buil­ding of its kind in Los An­ge­les. It will be the first “green” LEED (Lea­dership in Energy and En­vi­ron­men­tal De­sign) Gold Cer­ti­fied buil­ding in Holly­wood per the U.S. Green Buil­ding Coun­cil cer­ti­fi­ca­tion sys­tem and it will be the first LEED Gold Cer­ti­fied mixed-use or mar­ket rate mul­ti­fa­mily buil­ding in Southern California.

The de­ve­lop­ment will pay ho­mage to the sig­ni­fi­cant mu­si­cal and Holly­wood his­tory of Che­ro­kee Re­cor­ding Stu­dios, MGM Stu­dios be­fore it, and all the ar­tists who re­cor­ded mu­sic on the site from Frank Si­na­tra to Da­vid Bo­wie to Dave Mathews. Its uni­que archi­tec­tu­ral form and in­te­gra­ted func­tion create a high per­for­ming buil­ding that is an ex­pres­sion of the en­vi­ron­men­tal and cul­tu­ral con­text in which it is built. Simply put, Che­ro­kee Lofts will re­pre­sent the pre­miere in green de­sign, form, and func­tion in the epi­cen­ter of the en­ter­tain­ment ca­pi­tal of the world. The pro­ject is the 2007 Wes­tside Ur­ban Fo­rum Wes­tside Prize Winner.

Buil­ding ba­sics
Che­ro­kee Lofts will con­sist of 12 con­do­mi­nium lofts and 2800 square feet of re­tail space. The buil­ding will be 5 sto­ries inc­lu­ding 1 un­der­ground le­vel of par­king, first floor re­tail and par­king, 3 floors of lofts on floors 2 th­rough 4 and a roof­top deck and green roof.

The lofts will range in size from 1,000 square feet to 2,000 square feet with uni­que and dis­tinc­tive floor plans. 7 of the lofts will be two story town ho­mes perched 30 to 50 feet above street le­vel. The li­ving space con­sis­ting of a state of the art kitchen, great room, bath­room, and home re­cor­ding stu­dio or of­fice will be on the 4th floor 38 feet above street le­vel to ma­xi­mize city sky­line views, day­light, and energy ef­fi­ciency. 3 of the lofts will have 17-foot high cei­lings with mez­za­ni­nes and open to a lushly lands­ca­ped court­yard. Fi­nally two loft flats will have 10-foot high cei­lings also ope­ning to the lands­ca­ped court­yard. All lofts will have 2 to 3 bath­rooms and 1 to 4 be­drooms. In­te­riors inc­lu­ding kitchens, baths, and fi­nishes will all be ‘eco-luxury’ with high end ap­point­ments that have sim­ple and mo­dern li­nes while being en­vi­ron­men­tally friendly.

Where Form Meets Func­tion In a Green and His­to­ric Way

This buil­ding was con­cep­tua­li­zed, de­sig­ned, and will be built with the pa­ra­mount goal of blen­ding a highly de­sig­ned, sus­tai­na­ble buil­ding while pre­ser­ving the rich his­tory of the site. Th­rough every step of the in­te­gra­ted de­sign pro­cess the Team de­ba­ted how the building’s look and ma­te­rials would af­fect its func­tion, li­va­bi­lity, and po­si­tion in the com­mu­nity. The re­sult will be a vi­sually cap­ti­va­ting buil­ding with a spe­cial story to tell in how it per­forms, what it was, and what it will be to the point that no other buil­ding can claim. A few of the key green and his­to­ri­cal fea­tu­res of this uni­que buil­ding are desc­ri­bed below.

Green fea­ture high­lights
• 40% more energy ef­fi­cient than California’s very strict energy code for newly cons­truc­ted buil­dings and more than 100% ef­fi­cient than buil­dings built just 10 years ago sa­ving ow­ners real mo­ney while re­du­cing greenhouse ga­ses.
• Archi­tec­tu­ral Dy­na­mic Dou­ble Façade which is ow­ner con­tro­lled crea­tes a eye-catching and fluid ex­ter­nal view while pro­vi­ding sha­ding to cool the buil­ding, re­du­cing noise, enhan­cing pri­vacy, and still allo­wing for spec­ta­cu­lar views, great na­tu­ral light and ven­ti­la­tion from ocean bree­zes which pass th­rough its mi­llions of per­fo­ra­tions even when all pa­nels are clo­sed.
• Ad­van­ced Coo­ling and Hea­ting Com­fort Sys­tem which is being used in Canada’s new 2010 Olym­pic Vi­llage cools and warms floors, cei­lings, and walls to create a per­fectly tem­pe­rate en­vi­ron­ment bet­ter for res­pi­ra­tory sys­tems, skin, and ove­rall health and com­fort.
• Green Buil­ding Orien­ta­tion with the cen­tral court­yard bet­ween the two re­si­den­tial struc­tu­res allows for day­ligh­ting on both si­des of every unit while allo­wing pre­vai­ling bree­zes to fully pass th­rough the units for na­tu­ral ven­ti­la­tion.
• Green Roof pro­vi­des gree­nery for oc­cu­pants to en­joy while kee­ping the buil­ding bet­ter in­su­la­ted, clea­ning the air, and re­du­cing storm wa­ter run off.
• Wa­ter Con­ser­va­tion will be ac­com­plished with dual flush toi­lets, ef­fi­cient fix­tu­res, hot wa­ter cir­cu­la­tors, and drought to­le­rate lands­ca­ping.
• So­lar Po­wer will po­wer all com­mon area elec­tri­cal loads and a per­cen­tage of the hea­ting and hot wa­ter needs for the buil­ding re­du­cing energy needs and HOA fees.
• Green Lo­ca­tion is achie­ved by pro­xi­mity to a Me­tro Ra­pid Bus and wal­ka­bi­lity to cof­fee, or­ga­nic gro­cery, res­tau­rants, great shop­ping, and ma­jor en­ter­tain­ment cen­ters.
• Green Ma­te­rials and Pro­ducts used ex­ten­si­vely th­roughout such as ce­llu­lose in­su­la­tion, FSC Cer­ti­fied wood, and alu­mi­num to name a few are recyc­led, re­ne­wa­ble, and con­tain no VOCs (Vo­la­tile Or­ga­nic Compounds).

All of these green fea­tu­res help to re­duce the im­pact on the en­vi­ron­ment while pro­vi­ding a less ex­pen­sive buil­ding to ope­rate and main­tain and ul­ti­ma­tely a healthier and bet­ter place to live.

His­to­ric fea­ture high­lights
Che­ro­kee Stu­dios, the site’s for­mer ow­ner and oc­cu­pant ope­ra­ted one of the most sig­ni­fi­cant mu­si­cal Holly­wood re­cor­ding stu­dios with over 300 Pla­ti­num and Gold al­bums re­cor­ded by ar­tists such as Da­vid Bo­wie, El­ton John, Frank Si­na­tra, and El­vis. The new de­ve­lop­ment res­pects and will pay ho­mage to this past by subtly wea­ving his­to­ric ele­ments into the building.

• Dy­na­mic Façade. The first most dra­ma­tic fea­ture emu­la­tes the past crea­ti­vity that took place at the site by al­ways chan­ging and mo­ving much like the mu­sic crea­ted in the stu­dio.
• Stu­dio One’s Black Fo­rest Wood. Many ma­te­rials from the exis­ting re­cor­ding stu­dio will be reu­sed th­roughout the new buil­ding inc­lu­ding the dark wood pa­ne­ling from Germany’s Black Fo­rest that com­ple­ted Frank Sinatra’s Stu­dio One.
• Home Re­cor­ding Stu­dios. A few of the units will inc­lude home re­cor­ding stu­dios de­sig­ned mas­ter­fully by Che­ro­kee Studio’s foun­ders.
• His­tory. Stu­dio me­mo­ra­bi­lia, his­tory, and sto­ries will crea­ti­vely and tas­te­fully be fea­tu­red and do­cu­men­ted th­roughout buil­ding and in the buil­ding ow­ners and ope­ra­tion ma­nual.
• Che­ro­kee Studio’s Green Fu­ture. Lastly, Che­ro­kee Stu­dios is going green just like Che­ro­kee Lofts with a green re­cord la­bel, a new lar­ger green re­cor­ding stu­dio to be built with REthink, and a eco-rock tour ca­lled Rock Your Planet.

The close at­ten­tion to how form and func­tion, green buil­ding, and his­tory all af­fect each other crea­tes a one-of-a-kind buil­ding su­pe­rior in de­sign, cons­truc­tion qua­lity, and energy ef­fi­ciency. It will be less ex­pen­sive to ope­rate, healthier for its re­si­dents, and less im­pact­ful to the en­vi­ron­ment. For these rea­sons Che­ro­kee Lofts is at the fo­re­front of what in­te­lli­gent buil­dings should be.