Project Description
This mixed-use building contains both civic and office uses. The primary design objective of the client was revitalizing this underutilized portion of their City block through increased public space and its focus on commerce. Located at the SW corner of Canon Drive and Santa Monica Boulevard, the site was an abandoned, tight urban lot. Triangular in shape, the lot is only twenty feet wide at the Canon corner and is the North end of a major restaurant and shopping street in Beverly Hills. The program for this 18,000 sf. building includes the Beverly Hills Conference & Visitors Bureau on the ground floor, the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce on the second floor, and rentable space on the third floor and at the ground-floor corner. There is a roof terrace, used for public events.
The aligned missions of the Chamber of Commerce and the Conference & Visitors Bureau allowed the architects to work towards a design that would encourage visitors, whether tourists or corporate leaders, to come together to explore and celebrate Beverly Hills. The City expressed its intentions to keep the building mixed-use and the ground floor as publicly accessible and inviting retail space to re-stimulate pedestrian activity.
Working within the limitations of this very tight site, the design concept establishes an enticing element to draw you to the corner and around it, to the Visitors Bureau. There, the forms curve in to create a small plaza for the Conference & Visitors Bureau, intended to provide a gathering place for visitors to the city. The building’s larger form sweeps in from the West to create this plaza and continues to the open staircase, leading to the second floor Chamber’s space, encouraging walking as part of the architecture’s green design. The stair landings are glazed, drawing in daylight and offering views to City Hall and the Hollywood Hills beyond. The composition culminates with an expansive roof terrace for City receptions.
The sculptural forms are clad in limestone from India and linked by green tinted glass and metallic finished aluminum.
Green technologies are incorporated throughout the new building. Building-wide continuous insulation diminishes the negative effects of thermal bridging. On the roof, photovoltaic panels generate energy from natural sunlight. Engineered glass minimizes heat gain while maximizing light transmission. Water source heat pumps heat and cool the spaces.