Committee Snubs Gehry Design Team
The committee overseeing an estimated $1.2-billion development in downtown Los Angeles passed over a high-profile design team headed by architect Frank Gehry on Monday, selecting two less well-known teams as finalists for the project.
One of the two finalists is the Related Cos., a team that includes David Childs, who designed the Freedom Tower proposal for the ground zero site in New York City, and Los Angeles-based Thom Mayne, who designed the new Caltrans headquarters downtown. The second finalist, Forest City Enterprises, is a Cleveland-based firm that has primarily developed shopping centers in California.
In making the choices, the selection committee snubbed the team led by Gehry, who designed the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The team included a triumvirate of international designers: Frenchman Jean Nouvel, Iraq-born Zaha Hadid and Briton Norman Foster.
“I guess I’m a little surprised, although we read the writing on the wall,” said Craig Webb, senior partner and architect at Gehry Partners. “We feel the decision should be made based on design as well as the capabilities of the developer. We came up with a really dynamic scheme. It’s really a letdown not even having it considered.”
But Scott Johnson, a partner in another of the architectural firms shut out of the selection, Johnson Fain, said he didn’t agree with criticism that the process was flawed. “I wish them well,” he said. “There’s a lot of talent on both teams.”
As envisioned, the proposed mixed-use development would cover eight acres and combine housing, shopping, dining and entertainment on both sides of Grand Avenue south of 1st Street. Planners see the project, one of the largest ever proposed for the area, as crucial to the continued revitalization of downtown.
Two of the four lots to be developed are owned by the city and two by the county. Plans call for up to 1,000 residential units; 1 million square feet of office space; 600,000 square feet of retail, entertainment and restaurant space; and possibly a 400-room hotel. The creation of a 16-acre civic park between the Los Angeles Music Center and City Hall, possibly involving the demolition of some major county government office buildings, is also being discussed as part of the project.
Of the projected $1.2-billion cost, about $300 million would be needed for public infrastructure improvements and about $900 million for real estate development.
The selection of the two finalists was based on the qualifications of the designers and the developers, because the teams must produce a concept as well as arrange funding.
“The teams were chosen based on team qualifications and track record, development strategy, design analysis and financial concepts,” said committee Chairman James A. Thomas. “Each [has] a strong record in creating innovative, urban mixed-used projects and [has] worked in major cities around the country, including Los Angeles.”
Eric Owen Moss, an architect and director of the downtown architecture school SCI-Arc, described the proposed development as “a critical subject and critical issue for Los Angeles.”
Despite objections by some critics that the selection process has focused too heavily on developers and commercial interests at the expense of design, Moss said he was reserving judgment. “We’ll have to see how the competition shakes out,” he said. “I’m not ready to say the philistines have triumphed yet.”
Moss warned, however, of using as models for Grand Avenue thoroughfares in other cities, such as New York’s Fifth Avenue or the Avenue des Champs-Elysees in Paris.
“It would be a big mistake to make a big line with fancy stores,” he said, adding that the elevated site presents special possibilities and challenges. “We have to find a way to pull the city up the hill and the hill down to the city. That they become integrated is important. We don’t want a segregated avenue.”
At the Monday meeting, Thomas reserved the right to revisit proposals by the two teams that were not selected: the Fifield Cos. (Gehry’s group) and J.H. Snyder, which included architects Hodgetts + Fung as well as Johnson Fain.
The selection committee has set July 19 as the tentative date for naming the winning team, which will then have to be approved by the Grand Avenue Authority, a power-sharing agency created by the city and county.