Formosa Park and Condos

This recently opened project is just north of the legendary Formosa Cafe on Santa Monica Boulevard. The 11-unit building at 1140 Formosa was designed by Lorcan O'herlihy Architects, while the vest-pocket park is the work of Katherine Spitz. The location of the park along the south side of the condos allowed for views out along the building and over the park. The condos are rumored to have sold out immediately, but one scold has written that he hopes the bamboo along the edge of the park will eventually block out that "red monstrosity." No good deed goes unpunished.....

CalTech I - Cahill Center

This one had really slipped under my radar, but thanks to Christopher Hawthorne's Sunday LA Times, I was introduced to Thomas Mayne's latest masterpiece, shown here. This is the recently completed Cahill Center at CalTech. I'm a little too old to be a groupie, but I really love this man's work. I first became aware of him with a series of remodels along Wilshire, and of course Kate Mantellini...but I would never have predicted such a masterful body of work. The new Federal Building in San Francisco and the Cooper Union in New York (see previous post) look like the creations of someone who had no preconceptions of what a building should look like...almost as if he'd never seen one before! Bravo!

CalTech II - The Broad Center for the Biological Sciences

Also at CalTech was this 2002 building by Pei Cobb Fried & Partners. As was the case with the Annenberg Center, elegant landscape made a strong contribution to the success of this elegant structure.

CalTech III - the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Center

I was in Los Angeles last weekend to see friends. They took us to see Bebel Gilberto at the Hollywood Bowl. We also did a bit of new architecture touring at CalTech in Pasadena. Among the "finds" were this new building by Frederick Fisher & Partners that is scheduled to open in October. Shoe-horned into a really small site, the building features a Mondrianesque reflective glass skin that allows it to virtually dissappear into the landscape.