"Frame by Frame" is the culmination of the Fall 2022 studio titled "Activated Atlas: Westlake." This studio was film-based, allowing each student to create speculative projects based on conditions in Los Angeles' Westlake neighborhood. I was drawn to the rich history of the neighborhood and its high concentration of diverse historic structures. I researched programmatic uses of historic and architectural buildings, documenting their evolution through time to inspire the conversion of a vacant modernist building into a film studio. The diagrams drawings, and videos created demonstrate a two month research period prior to a final proposal in the form of a short video.
Westlake has a rich history dating back to the late 1800s when it became a place for the wealthy to "escape" downtown. As a hub for the elite, it became filled with mansions and a manicured park. Today, Westlake is the most densely populated neighborhood in the county and is seeing enormous amounts of proposals for new housing. I was interested in the visual and economic tensions between the 1920s mansions and the 2020s affordable housing. I began this study through blending the lens of ideal representations: postcards of past glory, and renders of future idealism.
After becoming more and more familiar with the historic structures of Westlake and the history of the area, I began to learn about the internal stories of each building. Due to the turbulent and dramatic changes the neighborhood faced in terms of demographics, economics, and infrastructure, the programs of many buildings had to change.In this map, I documented over 100 years of programmatic changes in 20 historic buildings in Westlake, along with unique data and stories about their pasts. The bar graphs below became a visual representation of the re-use that occurred within these buildings over decades.
One of the most intriguing buildings from the map I created was the Elk’s Lodge, a building constructed in the 1920’s as a social club. As the popularity of the Elk’s social group faded, new programs took over the space: a retirement home, an Olympic swimming tournament, punk rock concerts, and weddings. In this film, I created a cinematic map to track and compare these disparate histories that all occurred in the confines of one structure. A century later, the building still stands and is awaiting its next chapter.
Following my interest in historic structures and their change over time, I directed my interest to the Park Place Tower. It is an icon of late modernism, and an early example of distinctive ideas of geometric massing, open plan offices, and mirrored glass facades. Built in 1971, it originally housed the CNA Corporation and various other company offices. Today, it is only half occupied, the main tenant being the Los Angeles Superior Courts. With over 100,000 vacant square feet spanning various floors on a highly flexible plan, the Tower is a wealth of opportunity to the right tenant.
Combining LA’s growing need for studio space with the rich history of film in Westlake, I proposed a speculative vertically integrated studio to occupy the vacancy within the building. By manipulating the existing architectural features of the Tower, a new type of production is possible. The open floorplan can accommodate offices, editing space, viewing areas, and storage that can be simultaneously utilized as LED and green screens stages for filming. While the exterior of the Tower reflects the reality of Los Angeles, the forms within have the capability to portray any story imaginable.