ASPHALT URBANSCAPE Transit Oriented Development

DATE:  2012

PROJECT LOCATION: East Hollywood, California

PROGRAM:  transportation hub, public plaza, farmers market, bar, café, restaurant.

The role between cities, architecture and society has grown more complex; the need to understand these relationships and create integral environments that merge, unite and intertwine is vital in the growth of Los Angeles’s urban fabric. This thesis proposes that hybrid solutions in architecture are critical to revitalizing the urban condition of social connectivity. The project searches for means of how hybridity can be integrated in the form of Transit Oriented Development and proposes possible typologies that create new dynamic layers throughout the city.

 The project is rooted in three main ideas: (1) to connect and engage with the adjacent neighborhood by injecting variety, excitement and wonder; (2) manipulating the ground plane to create a dynamic experience for people that exit, enter and wait for public transportation and (3) the use of asphalt as a construction material, celebrating the undervalued and overlooked material of Los Angeles.

The site is located on the corner of Vermont and Santa Monica Blvd. in East Hollywood at an existing metro station that houses the red line. It is the stop before Hollywood and Highland, one of the busiest in Los Angeles. The site sits in the middle of diverse programs; to the north a heavy health and research center, to the south an educational core with Los Angeles City College and to the west and east is a very dense middle class residential neighborhood.