AB/BRO / MACK Architect(s)

Architect: MACK Architect(s)
Location: Venice, California, USA
Project Team: Mark Mack, Carlos Florez
Structural: Parker Resnick
Title 24: South Bay Energy
Methane Investigation: Methane Specialists
Project Year: 2007
Project Area: 4,900 sqf
Photographs: Anna Blau

The owner wanted to build a large, single occupancy live and work space on the fashionable Abbot Kinney Blvd, which has quickly become the commercial center of Venice Beach. Since the city zoning code started to allow artist-in-residence with a reduced parking requirement, this building typology has become very popular in this eclectic beach community.

This building takes advantage of the commercial zoning zero setback allowance to utilize the majority of site area while still providing a large central courtyard and open terraces in order to loosen the density on the site. Similar to the Abbot Kinney Lofts, the building reinforces the urban street edge and creates a colorful and expressive architectural presence on the corner. While many previous designs explored the use of color and shape, this project attempts to create simple planar exterior surfaces that can be cut out to create colorful voids carved from the building’s mass.

Text provided by MACK Architect(s).