Architecture School Plans Move to Edge of Downtown

The highly regarded Southern California Institute of Architecture will move its campus to downtown Los Angeles in a major boost for civic efforts to revive the central city with new cultural and educational institutions.

SCI-Arc, as the school is known, will bring its more than 500 students and staff to a $60-million commercial and residential development planned for the artists’ loft district. The school, currently near Marina del Rey, would be the most prestigious yet to move downtown, where more than 5,500 students attend classes at four educational institutions.

Previous efforts to expand the central city’s cultural offerings have failed to halt downtown’s downward spiral. But civic leaders and urban planners say SCI-Arc is part of a large mass of new institutions, housing and cultural attractions--such as the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels and Staples Center--that could finally trigger a long-awaited turnaround.

“This demonstrates that this is the center, and it’s going to get more and more interesting,” said Carol Schatz, president of the Central City Assn., which represents downtown businesses and institutions. “We are building a cultural and artistic mecca downtown.”

The focus on culture and entertainment has picked up steam in recent years as Los Angeles’ Westside and other suburban locales have undermined downtown’s once unrivaled position as Southern California’s commercial hub. In fact, as office vacancy rates declined across much of the entire region during the first quarter of this year, downtown’s rate rose to nearly 25%, according to Cushman Realty.

“This is the type of institution that can really transform a downtown,” said Ken Bernstein, the Los Angeles Conservancy’s head of preservation issues. “The new base of creative talent that is coming to downtown [can] contribute to the revitalization.”

SCI-Arc, whose graduates rank among Los Angeles’ leading designers, said the new home on the eastern edge of downtown will give the free-thinking institution a higher civic profile and help it diversify its student body. The students and staff will occupy a quarter-mile-long railroad freight building constructed nearly a century ago on a portion of the 10.5-acre property at the corner of 3rd Street and Santa Fe Avenue. SCI-Arc will own the building.

“We always wanted to be more of a player in the central city,” said SCI-Arc founder Ray Kappe during a Tuesday-morning tour of the long-vacant structure built by the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. The first classes in the new downtown campus are scheduled for next spring after a $3.5-million renovation of the historic building, which is now a graffiti-marred concrete shell.

Hagop Sargisian of Beverly Hills-based SY Development Corp. said he expects to complete the purchase of the property by the end of the summer and that construction of the 280 housing units and the commercial space will begin soon after. His firm, which has been active in apartment development across Los Angeles, is in the process of securing bank financing and possible tax-exempt bonds to build the project, which will be called the Freight Yard.

“We think that the match [between the school and new housing] will be fantastic,” said Sargisian, whose firm is converting a nearby brick warehouse into loft-style condominiums.

City officials, eager to attract new residents and vitality downtown, are considering a short-term $3.5-million, low-interest loan to help finance the project, according to Steven Carmona, a member of Mayor Richard Riordan’s L.A. Business Team.

“When you continue to see unique projects like this, it signals to others that downtown is back,” Carmona said.

Civic officials and urban planners say the additional students will infuse the area with new energy and trigger demand for more housing, stores and entertainment-related businesses. Downtown schools include the Colburn School of Performing Arts, the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, Otis College of Art and Design’s fashion program and UCLA Extension.

Carmona said SCI-Arc’s decision might help attract two more schools that are considering downtown sites. Cal State L.A. is pursuing plans to hold performances and open a continuing-education school at the site of the former St. Vibiana’s Cathedral on Main Street.

Meanwhile, the prestigious Pasadena-based Art Center College of Design is considering a proposal to move its entire 1,500-student campus to Bunker Hill near the new Disney Concert Hall.

“I don’t know a great city that doesn’t have a college in its downtown,” said developer Tom Gilmore, who is building loft housing in the historic core. “The business interests downtown are now speaking with one voice and saying, ‘Let’s encourage education.’ ”

SCI-Arc expects to play an active role in studying urban issues, said the school’s director, Neil Denari. “Our hope is that the city would look to us for new ideas,” he said.

Social awareness has played a prominent role in the mission and curriculum at SCI-Arc, which was founded in 1972 when 75 instructors and students formed the experimental school. Its graduates are among Los Angeles’ most notable architects, including Thom Mayne, Eric Owen Moss and Michael Rotondi. Instructors have included architect Frank Gehry and historian Mike Davis.

The school is expected to trigger a surge of activity in the surrounding loft district, where more than 2,000 artists and other professionals have established a community amid renovated warehouses and the encampments of the homeless.

“This will be a keystone for the neighborhood,” said civic activist and shop owner Joel Bloom. “We need critical mass. We need bodies.”