American Institute of Architects|Los Angeles has announced that Tower on Sunset by R&A Architecture + Design for the Charles Company was selected as the third place winner of this year’s design awards program in the NEXT LA – Citation category. The Culver City-based firm is working on more than a dozen local, community-scaled projects in California, and believes that every design is an opportunity for transformation and impact. This rebellious young firm, inspired by the history of rock and roll, created a new building typology for the West Hollywood skyline, a neighborhood which has long been at the forefront of forward-thinking design.
Designed around the iconic views of West Hollywood, Tower on Sunset is a spiraling, 22-story, mixed-use project on Sunset Boulevard that embraces one of L.A.’s most historic streets. Resting atop a podium complex, which was previously a historic office building owned and occupied by Bing Crosby, the tower includes 185 hotel rooms, multiple event spaces, and 14 affordable apartment units. While the tower is set back from Doheny and Sunset Boulevard, the retail and restaurant meet the street along the three-story podium structure. The roof of the podium offers outdoor amenity spaces, including a pool and lounge areas.
Adjacent to Marriott’s John Pawson designed Sunset EDITION hotel and condominiums, and Townscape Partner’s Frank Gehry-designed 8150 Sunset, the T-shaped Tower on Sunset is located at the eastern edge of West Hollywood. The project looks to reimagine the standard hotel typology of double loaded rectangular layouts by reducing the footprint into a circular floor plan, creating a more slender tower that allows adjacent neighbors to maintain their view corridors. The curved and rotating floor plates allow each floor to extend beyond the building envelope, while each individual floor plate is oriented to a specific view of West Hollywood or Los Angeles to create a shifting, sculptural building form grounded in the surrounding context.
“As a young firm we are extremely excited that the AIA|LA 2018 Design Awards Jury has recognized one of our inaugural projects with their NEXT LA – Citation award,” says Christian Robert, Principal at R&A. “The Tower on Sunset beautifully captures the uninhibited spirit of our practice while paying architectural homage to the adventurous nature of one of the City’s most storied boulevards and most progressive cities in California: West Hollywood.”
The project is currently in the early entitlement stage, preparing an Environmental Impact Review and continuing it’s neighborhood outreach. The hope is that the tower will become both a destination and a new landmark within the city of West Hollywood.
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