Delirious LA

work and writings in urbanism by Alan A Loomis

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Category Archives: Civic & Campus Plans

Central Park Master Plan

June 23, 2009by Alan Loomis 8 Comments

This Strategic Master Plan guides the phased reconstruction of Glendale’s Downtown Central Park, including built work by Shimoda Design Group, AECOM, and Gruen Associates.

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City of Glendale, Civic & Campus Plans, District Plans, Glendale Central Park, Maryland Off Broadway, Streets & Parks, Work

Pomona College Strategic Master Plan

May 10, 2002by Alan Loomis

The Pomona College Strategic Master Plan will guide growth and development of this historic 100-acre campus for the next 25 years.

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Civic & Campus Plans, Moule & Polyzoides, Work

Azusa Civic Center Master Plan

October 1, 2001by Alan Loomis

The Azusa Civic Center Master Plan outlines a strategy for enhancing and expanding the institutional heart of this East San Gabriel Valley city

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Azusa, Civic & Campus Plans, District Plans, Moule & Polyzoides, Streets & Parks, Work

UCSB West District Plan

July 16, 2001by Alan Loomis

The West District Plan will guide the redevelopment of the western half of the University of California, Santa Barbara, creating a physical framework for transforming a 100-acre area currently dominated by parking fields into a traditional campus.

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Civic & Campus Plans, Moule & Polyzoides, Work

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1/3 Charles Moore’s contribution to the UC Irvine campus, the domestically scaled Extension Education Center, is inspired by the three chapels of San Gregorio in Rome. In fact, as Moore himself admits in the essay “The Qualities of Quality,” the triparte elevation design featuring a scalloped baroque centerpiece flanked by paired arched facades, is a near literal copy of the 17th Century Roman precedent. (As seen in the etching by Giuseppe Vasi). Approached via a set of scalloped steps and sitework, more elaborate than in Rome, the building likely felt more monumental when first built than today now that it is surrounded by the multi-story boxes of the Business School, Law Library and nearby Social Sciences Parking Structure. 2/3 Behind the ochre-colored baroque facades of Moore’s UC Irvine Education Center, are simple gable-roofed buildings containing offices and classrooms. Here the unity of the main facade(s) dissolves into a collection of loosely arranged structures around a loosely defined central courtyard flanked by shed-roof post-and-beam arcades. From this perspective, where the baroque facades read as clear false fronts, the architectural inspiration seems more cowboy western than Roman. As is often the case with Moore’s more experimental work, the quality of the architectural finishes and details is also a little cowboy western. 3/3 The baroque centerpiece of Moore’s UC Irvine Education Center is flanked by a pair of rambling buildings that create a piazza of sorts, delineating a promenade and pathway leading to/from the larger campus. Indeed, one of the structures bridges over the pathway with a low-slung postmodern archway, marking a gateway to this strange quasi-Roman fragment within the UCI campus. Like many of the forgotten corners of Rome, the legibility of this odd little California piazza is now obscured by overgrown landscaping and sycamore trees. One suspects Moore would be pleased. The typology and culture of Parisian cafes is most wonderful.

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