For over a decade, Architizer’s A+Awards have been championing architectural excellence worldwide. This year, the program celebrates local innovation with global recognition. Click to enter before the Main Entry Deadline on Friday December 6th.
The light in Los Angeles is known across the world. Attracting artists, filmmakers and architects alike, the city’s light combines with its subtropical climate to create an ideal place to live. From Koenig’s iconic Stahl house to the transformation of the Los Angeles Basin, the city has continuously sought a new aesthetic, one that balances its relationship to climate with design. While so much of the city’s architecture has been photographed and captured during the day, it also transforms at night. This not only gives way to beautiful photographs but also new architectural experiences.
Architectural photography is intrinsically tied to light. Shadows, sun and electric lighting all highlight forms, colors and spaces. Nighttime photography requires careful attention to how low light can shape our understanding of a building. One key advantage is that at night there are more stable light conditions than in the daytime. In Los Angeles, urban light is plentiful and, at times, distracting. Photographers work with different camera settings and techniques to capture the perfect shot, from long exposure or white color balance to slow shutter speeds. Exploring Los Angeles architecture at night, the following projects were photographed to capture light either on a building or coming from it. The result are images that tell a more complete story of how a building is experienced.
Pittman Dowell Residence
Designed by Michael Maltzan Architecture, Photographed by Iwan Baan
Five decades after the original house was constructed, the city has grown around it with a change in both the visual and the physical context. Inside the house, living spaces unfold in a shifting array of framed views of spaces within the house and vistas out to the valley below. As the team described, instead of using doors, a level of privacy is maintained by layering space and limiting view access. Color and indoor-outdoor views further challenge the relationship of elements framed within each scene. At the heart of the project is a courtyard resulting from the diagonal intersecting slices through the home.
Herman Miller / Holdrege Avenue Building
Designed by Lynch / Eisinger / Design, Photographed by Amy Barkow Photography
Diving into the renovation, the team had existing materials stripped and sandblasted to reveal cast concrete panels and the original bow-truss structure with curved plank decking, characteristic of mid-century LA. Wood screens shade each glass wall and portions of the courtyards while bringing the texture and materiality of the interior out to the public realm. This is also seen in photographs of the project at night. A third wood screen forms an entry pavilion, providing a street wall and point of access to the larger courtyard, and standing in contrast with the hard surroundings of this industrial street.
The Broad
Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Photographed by Iwan Baan
The “vault” plays a key role in shaping the museum experience from entry to exit. Its heavy opaque mass is always in view, hovering midway in the building. The vault is enveloped by the “veil,” a porous, honeycomb-like exterior structure that spans across the block-long third-floor gallery and provides filtered natural daylight. As DS+R explained, the museum’s “veil” lifts at the corners, welcoming visitors into an active lobby and shop. The public is then drawn upwards via an escalator through the vault, arriving onto column-free gallery space bathed in filtered light.
Los Angeles Natural History Museum
Designed by CO Architects, Photographed by Tom Bonner
Outside the structure and building itself, a 3.5-acre (1.5-hectare) landscape program provides gardens and outdoor learning environments. Modernization efforts began in 2006 with the renovation and seismic upgrade of the iconic 1913 Building – the first phase of an institution-wide metamorphosis (including the roll–out of major new exhibitions) leading up to the museum’s 2013 centennial. When seen at night, visitors can catch a glimpse of the Otis Booth Pavilion all lit up.
Skirball Cultural Center
Designed by Safdie Architects, Photographed by Timothy Hursley
Safdie designed the entire campus for the Skirball. Showcasing the Southern California landscape while aiming to recall ancient Jewish traditions, the campus spans 15 acres (6 hectares) and is comprised of a community of gardens, courtyards, pavilions and buildings of white concrete, pink stone, stainless steel, and glass. Buildings and facilities include the Skirball Museum; an archaeology discovery center; a 350-seat auditorium; an amphitheater; a great hall for performing arts and social events; facilities for classes, meetings, and conferences; garden spaces; and the Noah’s Ark at the SkirballTM galleries.
Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
Designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Photographed by Nic Lehoux
The new addition features a soaring terrace with views of the Hollywood Hills. The building’s design is inspired by the museum’s mission to turn the dream factory inside out and give visitors unprecedented opportunities to peer behind the screen and into the creative, collaborative world of moviemaking. It features six stories of dynamic spaces, including more than 50,000-square-feet (4,650-square-meter) of immersive permanent and temporary exhibition galleries, an education studio, two state-of-the-art theaters as well as dynamic public and special event spaces.
For over a decade, Architizer’s A+Awards have been championing architectural excellence worldwide. This year, the program celebrates local innovation with global recognition. Click to enter before the Main Entry Deadline on Friday December 6th.