The California Endowment
Los Angeles
Rios Clementi Hale Studios

Rios Clementi Hale Studios unearths the diversity of a neighborhood to transform a sad lot into a vibrant headquarters and public resource.

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	Click here for slide show. Photo © Tom Bonner

By Russell Fortmeyer

Few Los Angeles neighborhoods boast the mix of history and diversity that surrounds the 6.5-acre site of the California Endowment’s new headquarters, located on a once-dilapidated lot near Chinatown and the original 1781 pueblo. Locally based Rios Clementi Hale Studios (RCHS) took advantage of this condition by approaching the project as a collaborative mix of landscape and building. Historical research helped the studio incorporate community needs with the Endowment’s goals. “The building is really about being as generous and open with its space as possible,” says Bob Hale, FAIA.

The architect’s commitment to an open dialogue helped it win the 2002 design competition to replace the Endowment’s existing offices in suburban Woodland Hills. The nonprofit foundation’s mission to serve the health-care needs of the state’s underprivileged—and a desire to raise its profile within the downtown business core—shaped the design brief.

Embracing the Spanish-style, Southern California tradition of courtyard buildings, RCHS broke up the program by locating meeting areas within detached pavilions that define an expansive, 16,000-square-foot outdoor plaza. A four-story office tower on the north side of the court includes administrative offices oriented around a full atrium.

Subtle customization of standard materials, a hallmark of RCHS’s work, is evident throughout the complex. The designers altered the conventional curtain wall of the office block by randomly inserting recessed glass panels, laminated blue to draw a contrast between the blue L.A. skies and the sleek, white interiors.

Seen on approach by car—typical for L.A.—the pavilions’ pitched roofs, and the color striations of their aluminum panel cladding, shift and flutter. The steel-framed buildings’ color scheme intentionally responds to the immediate urban context: Red hues pick up the tile roofs of Union Station and Olvera Street, and the ersatz Orientalism of Chinatown; ochre nods to nearby masonry construction; and the greens connect to the broader landscape.

Balancing the Endowment’s desire for a transparent facility against tangible security concerns, RCHS placed a public gallery with a secure entrance along the street while allowing views and controlled access into the landscaped courtyard. Riparian plantings reflect what might have originally existed at the site, which is not far from the L.A. River, while the other landscaping symbolizes the Endowment’s statewide charter: Redwoods that summon the Sierra Nevadas and northern coastal region; pepper trees, the central valley; and a small plot—containing medicinal plants, such as aloe vera, pennyroyal, lavender, and rosemary—that suggests a Spanish mission garden.

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Formal name of project:
The California Endowment

Location:
Los Angeles

Gross square footage:
118,000 square feet

Year and month of completion: April 2006

Total Construction Cost:
$65,000,000

Owner:
The California Endowment

Architect:
Rios Clementi Hale Studios
6824 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038
Tel: 323-634-9220
Fax: 323-634-9221
www.rchstudios.com

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