Issue No. 2, Winter 2016
contents.
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12 3 5 0
23 S T U D I O
18 BURBANK
TOWN
S T R E E T
HOSPITALITY STUDIO
22 R E T A I L
H I L L
CENTER
8 390 FIRST STREET
24 GRAPHIC DESIGN STUDIO
VIRTUAL REALITY STUDIO
TCA does not accept th and constantly ask the better, smarter design produce more with les built environments are to enhance lives. Our Idea, which informs t better design, and the community. We r we delight in the discipli that inspire and uplift, “base� is our celebratio
he status quo. We push e question “Is there a for this?� We strive to ss because uninspired e missed opportunities designs require a Big the process, leads to ultimately benefits resist mediocrity, and line that leads to places , even in ordinary life. on of this commitment. —the people of TCA
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process. The TCA design process emphasizes collaboration to produce diverse, high quality design for all projects. All projects are required to write a central theme, or “Big Idea,” to guide the process. Design is constantly reviewed, critiqued, and discussed in various venues throughout the life of the project. This process allows for new ideas and novel approaches to be considered, with commentary from all experience levels within the firm encouraged. It also ensures that all work leaving the office retains the same consistently high quality of design. As such, our work ultimately contributes to thriving communities where people live, work, play, and connect.
BIG IDEA INFORMS DESIGN, BENEFITS S.W.O.T.
At project commencement, a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats meeting is held with the Studio Director, Senior Designer, and key leadership within TCA. Questions are asked about the site, program, and building type, as a means to help avoid common pitfalls and to start the process off in the right direction.
PIN UP
Pin Ups are an “ongoing” presentation of the project. They will typically occupy a wall within the office, allowing the project to be observed by everyone at TCA. Project teams periodically update the exhibit, and gather others to provide comments and critique. Pin Ups are a valuable tool, especially in the earlier stages of the project. The collaboration allows the design team to explore “big ideas” and engage in discourse that often leads to alternative, or more refined, solutions.
SALON! This presentation is an opportunity to learn, share information and critique ongoing projects between TCA’s three offices. Project teams present their work during each phase of the project, and before key milestone dates. Salon! allows the entire office to provide input and to offer suggestions that keep the project on course as the design evolves over time.
DESK CRIT
Daily desk crits play an important role in TCA’s process. These critiques typically involve the project team, however, oftentimes they also include other team members at TCA. The intent is to provide detailed, project specific review and commentary to improve the overall design.
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Alvin Ban • Andrew Lau • Andy Guinab Anna Mendoza • Aram Chahbazian Ariel Abalos • Armine Movsesyan • Athena Balistreri • Azi Sadrieh • Beverly Christiansen • Bill Nord • Bill Volbrecht Bob Collins • Bob Vargas • Brittany De Paul • Bryan Walker • Chi Dang Oberlander Christine Cortina • Christopher Gibson Cindy Solis • Courtney Power • Craig Smith Dan Schmid • Daniel Lee • Dayl Francis Desiree Kelley • Devin Campbell • Dong Oh • Doni Adhiningrat • Ed Raspa • Elijah Guingab • Eric Olsen • Evelyn Freimann Flavia Merlino • Frank Pasker • Gail Dyer • Gary Gareza • Gary Struthers George Takayama • Gilbert Anguiano Glenn Araga • Gus Quintana • Henry Le e • I n d i a H ow l e t t • I r w i n Ya u
PROCESS, BETTER COMMUNITY Jae Lee • Jane Buttrey • Jeny Lim • Jerrin Chu • Jim Liu • Jon Hellinga • Jon Veregge Jonathan Cohen • Jonathan Ly • Jonathan Rolf • Josefine Fabricius • Juan Soria Karina White • Katharine Hanson • Katie Rosso • Ken Soudani • Kevin Buchta • Kevin Yan • Kim Stickel • Laila Etemadi • Leslie Cervantes • Lisa Fraga • Lisa Ignacio Lisa Yasutake • Luis Enciso • Ly Moser Mable Chung-Sladky • Matt Fullenkamp Matthew Vitti • Megan Turner • Melissa Logan • Michael Mindlin • Michelle Chronis • Miguel Gonzalez • Mike Burnside Mike Cox • Mike Fowler • Morgan Atkins Nick Radon • Paul Adamson • Paul Anderson Paul Medel • Philip Terhorst • Radziah Loh • Rafael Salas • Rand Williams • Robert Valdez • Rodolfo Mora • Ryan Kranz • Sandy Chung • Sarah McGee • Scott Neville Soufiane Bedda • Stacy Nieves • Steve Hutson • Susan Spohn • Sylvia Kim Tak Katsuura • Thanh Vuong • Thomas Cox Tim Mustard • Vic Raskovsky • Vin Luca • Wini Wang • Winston Chang • Yvonne Cooper
Base Team Anna Mendoza Armine Movsesyan Azi Sadrieh Christine Cortina Courtney Power Chi Dang Oberlander
Eric Olsen Henry Lee India Howlett Matt Fullenkamp Tak Katsuura Wini Wang
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390 FIRST STREET
USE OF FORM + CONNECT OLD & Core/ Stucco
Window Wall
Precast
et tre S t irs
EXISTING
NEW
First Street
NEW
EXISTING
F
BRIDGING MATERIALS BETWEEN EXISTING & NEW
ALIGNMENTS BETWEEN EXISTING & NEW
SITE PLAN
TOWER HEIGHT: 400'
TOWER SPACING: 115'
UNUSABLE AREA
PODIUM HEIGHT: 65'
Project Team Andrew Lau Anna Mendoza Ariel Abalo Glen Araga Henry Lee Jim Liu Johnathan Cohen Miguel Gonzales Radziah Loh Robert Collins Tak Katsura Thom Cox
Location | San Francisco Client | Millcreek Residential 390 First Street is a 14-story, 180-unit apartment community that sits at a key hilltop intersection in the Rincon Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. Together with the landmark Sailor’s Union of the Pacific building across First Street, it bookends a major departure gateway from San Francisco to the Bay Bridge. Like the Sailor’s Union, the building massing is composed of an assemblage of discrete masses to marry old and new. The stepped 5 to 7 story podium fronting Lansing, Harrison and First Streets is clad in precast concrete. The light and glassy 14-story tower faces First Street, a section of it extending to ground and incorporating the main entry. The Lansing Street frontage faces the narrow pedestrian/auto “shared street,” with a smaller scale residential focus employing townhouse-style stoops in a manner sympathetic to traditional San Francisco residential architecture.
LANDING STREET SETBACK
+ MATERIALS TO & NEW At the heart of Rincon Hill and the entrance to the bay bridge, 390 1st Street fills one of the last parcels and uses form and material to bridge the original neighborhood with multiple newer towers built
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in the last few years.
-Tak Katsuura
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MASSING & DESIGN PROGRESSIONS
GLAZING COLOR/PATTERNING STUDY
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390 First Street is a fantastic project with many design challenges: 1. Interweave a slender and modern curtain
wall tower into a more traditional podium structure using classic elements of San Francisco architecture - bay windows and projecting cornice – while stepping down a steep hill. 2. Express the design as a NEIGHBORHOOD CONTEXT
MASSING STUDY
collection of interconnected geometries and reinforce each element with its own palette of materials – multi tinted glass, GFRC, and deeply textured concrete. 3. Form a transition from the tall towers of Rincon Hill to the residential scale of Lansing Street,
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using elements of San Francisco row house vernacular of steps and stoops.
-Jonathan Cohen
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ENHANCE CO WITH THE PE “
Beacon on Hill’s Big Idea has always been quite simple: Use Architecture to create a memorable, iconic corner that marks the Metro entrance and conveys the feeling of a grand, urban residential address. The
vertical emphasis of the tower
creates this recognizable feature when
accentuates this
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traveling up Hill Street. The terracing of the massing with outdoor spaces
move and emphasizes the hospitality feeling of the residential program.
-Eric Olsen
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CONNECTIVITY
ORIENTATION & SOLAR DESIGN
BEACON
ONNECTIVITY EOPLE Project Team: Armine Movsesyan Anna Mendoza Chi Dang Frank Pasker Gilbert Anguiano Jenny Lim Kevin Yan Leslie Cervantes Ly Moser Sandy Chung Vic Raskovsky Winston Chang Location | Downtown LA Client | Equity Residential 4th & Hill is a 33-story high-rise with three levels of subterranean parking. This tower includes 428 dwelling units, ground floor retail, about 3,000 SF of amenity spaces, over 4,000 SF of lobby and leasing area, and eight stories of above grade parking, four of which contain liner units. The project is also directly adjacent to the entrance to one of DTLA’s main transportation stops, Pershing Square Metro Station.
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The big idea was simple: an urban form with a vertical line that demarcates the metro entrance. This concept was studied through multiple media tools at different phases.
INVESTIGATION BEACON PATTERNS
BALCONIES STUDY
WINDOW WALL PATTERN STUDY
DD
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HILL ST. ALT #2
CD
HILL ST. ALT #1
REVIT BASE STUDIES
“
4th & Hill is a very exciting project that has it all: LEED Gold registration, a transitoriented development right above a Metro station, a strong low-income housing component, and a landmark design with
Pretty much the prototype for the way a good building in L.A. should be. -Frank Pasker
spectacular views.
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PROJECT CONNECTIVITY TO METRO
BASE ARTICULATION STUDIES
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Working with MTA on 4th & Hill has been an interesting experience. Their review process is long and tedious; however, one must respect the service they provide
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the community.
-Gilbert Anguiano
Centrally located shear walls around the elevator core help to keep concrete shear walls away from the façade economize structure, and allow cleaner detailing and waterproofing of the envelope.
IN-SLAB UTILITY
Use of in slab ducts provide a cleaner ceiling by minimizing soffits but require a higher level of coordination.
CURTAIN WALL VS WINDOW WALL
Curtain wall is the classic envelope system for office high rise buildings: Hanging outbound of the slab, they bypass the floors and provide an exterior cladding. They are great for waterproofing and allow for more construction tolerance of the concrete slab. They’re also about 50% more expensive than window wall systems.
Window walls go from floor to ceiling, have slab bypass details (spandrel glass or metal) and provide a better acoustic and fire rating performance at the floor line. However, they require a higher quality of concrete levelness and flatness to ensure a watertight installation.
TECHNOLOGY IN DESIGN
CORE
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BURBANK TOWN CENTER
A NEW VISIO WEAVES A LO
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R
ON THAT OCAL VIBE “
Our mission is to reinvigorate Burbank Town Center so that it can continue to serve as an economic anchor in
the City of Burbank’s downtown core, and so that it can
enhance the community’s offerings with more diverse retail, residential, and entertainment options, making Burbank a highly desirable place to live
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with an excellent quality of life.
-Sarah McGee
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Location | Burbank, CA Client | Crown Realty Burbank Town Center will be an animated vital hub within the City of Burbank and will support a variety of uses and different scales while maintaining a village feel. Burbank Town Center will have an urban mixed-use core, a place of innovative design and strong relationships to the active downtown, the Empire Center, and the adjacent North San Fernando Boulevard corridor. It will accommodate a blend of uses including residential, retail, restaurant, hotel, and entertainment. The proposed development will bring 1,100 new residences, over 35,000 SF of new retail and restaurant space, and a 200 room hotel. PROPOSED HOTEL VIEW
VIEW OF RETAIL PEDESTRIAN EXPERIENCE
VIEW TOWARDS BURBANK MALL
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Project Team Irwin Yau Jae lee Josefine Fabricius Michael Mindlin Rodolfo Mora Sarah McGee Wini Wang
RESIDENTIAL TOWER ELEVATION STUDIES
RETAIL STUDIO
Location | Burbank, CA Client | Crown Realty There’s got to be “more meat on those bones” than form or function if the “big idea” is to guide the decision making process and allows teams to make deliberate decisions that contribute to a common goal.
Project Team Irwin Yau Jae lee Josefine Fabricius Michael Mindlin
Rodolfo Mora Sarah McGee Wini Wang
The Burbank project is branded by this new urban place… an experience that is meant to be the center of a revitalized downtown Burbank. Success required a series of experiences that speak to a range of requirements: arrival, promenade, entry, plaza and function. Retail could help sculpt this space; create better lease space; and better handle all the messy nuance of service, delivery and such. In other words, the “what” is all about creating a vibrant and complex space. The “how” is the transformation from one simple move to a series of urban experiences created by modulating the space with the retail. The “why” can be seen in the plans and design work that is both an elegant and practical solution for a more intense and complex series of experiences. In the absence of a “big idea”, daily decisions are arbitrary. Take a look at the original plan for the civic space shaped by new retail on the Burbank Town Center project. Clearly, this is a form driven idea: a simple sweep of a building’s retail with a lot of energy given to the hardscape design that creates, generally, one space. And, as a form driven idea it doesn’t easily respond to functional issues … let alone create interesting retail.
ORIGINAL MASTER PLAN BY ANOTHER FIRM
NEW MASTER PLAN BY TCA
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SITE MODEL: EXISTING CONDITION
INITIAL CONCEPT MODEL
CONCEPT MODEL: SINGLE LOADED TOWER
HOSPITALITY STUDIO
CONTRASTING SCALE AND EXPRESSION Location | San Jose, CA Client | Khanna Enterprises The existing Four Points by Sheraton San Jose Downtown Hotel (formerly the Montgomery Hotel) is a city, state and national landmark. The 1911 Italianate building has a primary facade on First Street and a secondary facade on the north side, facing an open space. In 2000, the building was moved south to the present parcel, restored and re-opened in 2003. Our client came to TCA with the notion that the property could achieve greater value and continue to more effectively compete with other, newer hotels downtown if the northern portion of the parcel were developed. The space between the
Project Team Bill Nord Bryan Walker John Hellinga Keith Chung
Kevin Yang Miguel Gonzalez Paul Adamson Thom Cox
lower levels of the proposed building and the existing hotel would be spanned with a glazed wall at both ends - a “hyphen,” in the vocabulary of historic preservation, enclosing a new lobby space, while admitting light to the existing building windows and enabling views of the historic facade from the street. The proposed tower would join a cluster of downtown high-rise buildings which naturally “belongs” with the taller neighbors and the clearly different expression and scale of the proposed tower creates a respectful counterpoint to the historic hotel.
CONCEPT MODEL: DOUBLE LOADED TOWER
The wall art commissioned by Camden properties for the exterior of its hip apartment homes needed to reflect both the history of Hollywood— specifically at the location Selma and Vine—and also the ultra cool clientele the client wishes to attract. The challenge is how to avoid cliché while communicating the birth of Hollywood motion pictures. These laser etched life-size images become part of the space— interacting with architectural elements. These visual representations from the site’s past seemingly emerge from the walls of building. Custom illustrations were made by TCA Graphic Design Studio, to represent timeless characters of movie making—a film producer, an actress running from an unseen nemesis, a cowboy dressing for his scene, and a stunt person hanging precariously from a window. These plaques encourage the street level pedestrian to interact with the building in ways they may not normally. This also gives Camden the opportunity to lead perspective renters to leasing offices as plaques are ordered leading around the corner to the main lobby.
GRAPHIC DE
HISTORY WITH Project Team India Howlett Kat Fon
REFERENCE PHOTOS FOR FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS
VIEW OF RETAIL PEDESTRIAN EXPERIENCE
CONCEPT TWO: CHARACTERS FROM MOVIE MAKING AND A CONNECTION AROUND THE BUILDING
ESIGN STUDIO
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HOUT CLICHÉ
THE POWER OF THIS TOOL IS BIG VR STUDIO
“
I believe the introduction of
VR into Architecture is more
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revolutionary than CAD.
-Matt Vitti
Project Team Aram Chahbazian Matt Vitti Tim Mustard Bryan Walker
In many cases, the utilization of virtual reality is simply a progression or enhancement to the overall industry in which it is being applied. However, when VR is applied to our industry, architecture, the opposite is true. Unlike gaming, this technology allows architects to solve issues in novel ways. A simple example of this is scale. As architects, we tend to use the word “feel” when describing a space. The meaning behind this relates to scale—namely the scale of yourself in relation to that space. Secondly, VR allows architects to fully experience their project in pre-construction. This means identifying and solving problems at scale in real time. This allows users not only to create more successful projects based on having access to more data, but it also optimizes the overall design process. Constructing a project where the final result can’t be fully understood until the completion of construction is a risky proposition indeed. This is a revolution!
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