National Blvd

'Residential Tower' is a dynamic addition to the new urban community developing along National Blvd.  The design focuses on providing new modern living in a Transit-Oriented-Community that enhances the pedestrian experience in the area. Space for retail and restaurants line the sidewalk at the base of the tower, encouraging residents to walk within the community and take advantage of its ¼ mile adjacency to the Expo Line transit stop.
 

Project summary

Standing at over 321 feet tall, and with 26 stories, the tower is designed as an iconic feature in the urban landscape. The project offers a mix of 124 residential units with 13,000 sf of commercial space with a full range of amenities, open green space, and community space, and is a singular entity rising at the edge between the City of Los Angeles, and Culver City.

​The project offers amazing vistas to the Pacific in the west, the San Gabriel Mountains to the north, Downtown Los Angeles to the east, and unimpeded views of cityscape to the south.  'Residential Tower' is enclosed by a thick, occupiable envelope made from an aggregate of large metal apertures. Within these mega apertures, residential units are each provided a large, private outdoor living space that is built into the tower's double layer façade. Many of these these spaces are partially enclosed by glass printed with 'frit' patterning; a technique that allows clear views outward while producing the appearance of opaque surfaces when looking inward at the building.
 
The large apertures and visually opaque glass help erase the horizontal lines of the floor plates and the monotonous repetition of apartment units. This gives the tower a contemporary, monolithic presence while attempting to give way to a new reading of the Los Angeles facade as an occupiable extension of the interior.