Larger Convention Center to Accent Visual Image

A strong visual identity will be created for the Los Angeles Convention Center with its anticipated expansion, targeted for completion in early 1992.

The $390-million project, expected to generate $504 million annually in economic benefits for the local economy by 1994, will add 2.5 million square feet of total space to the center’s existing 1.5 million square feet, including parking.

The center, currently bounded by Figueroa, Sentous and 11th streets and Pico Boulevard, will extend to Venice Boulevard to the south from its current 32-acre facility for a total of 58 acres.

A striking architectural concept, compatible with the evolving South Park community, will feature a 5-acre open plaza and two pavilions that will house the lobby areas and serve as identifying beacons for both the Convention Center and downtown Los Angeles. A two-story conference center, spanning Pico Boulevard, will connect and integrate the existing and the new facilities.

Functioning as entrances into the south and west lobbies, the 150-foot pavilions’ glass shells will be encased in a grid of 12-inch structural steel tubes, illuminated at night.

The architect is Gruen Associates/I.M. Pei & Partners, with a team headed by Ki Suh Park, managing partner of Gruen Associates, and James Ingo Freed, partner in charge of design of I.M. Pei. Associate architects are the Tanzmann Associates, Edward C. Barker Associates, Escudero Fribourg Associates and Stuart Ahn & Associates.

Final architectural schematic design plans for the Convention Center were approved Nov. 9 by the Los Angeles Convention & Exhibition Center Authority, a 15-member commission created by the city and county to share responsibility for the project.

The project’s Figueroa Street facade will allow for pedestrian space in front of the new exhibit hall and has been designed with special paving and other site amenities.

The new facility will include the work of three nationally recognized artists, Alexis Smith, Matt Mullican and Larry Bell, who were selected by the authority to participate in the Art-in-Architecture Program.