Delirious LA

work and writings in urbanism by Alan A Loomis

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Category Archives: Shopping

The Americana at Brand

November 15, 2018by Alan Loomis Leave a comment

“In Glendale, The Americana pioneered the concept of mixed-use urban residential in a downtown and inspired a 10-year building boom that added over 3,000 new residential units across 20-plus projects to the immediate area.” My essay about The Americana at Brand is one of the many entries in the online SAH Archipedia.

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Architectural Shorts, Architecture, Glendale, Places, Shopping, Writings

Victoria Gardens

June 10, 2005by Alan Loomis Leave a comment

Commentary published in “Los Angeles: Building the Polycentric City” for the 13th Congress of New Urbanism, June 2005

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Architectural Shorts, Architecture, Los Angeles, New Urbanism, Places, Shopping, Writings

The Once and Future Mall

March 4, 2004by Alan Loomis Leave a comment

The Farmers Market, The Grove and the future of the Shopping Mall | Published in the LA Forum 2004 Annual

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History, Los Angeles, Shopping, Writings
Beverly Center

Consuming the City

October 30, 2002by Alan Loomis Leave a comment

Commerce is a fundamental function of the city, if not the primary reason for urban life. What else is the city but a giant machine for making money? | Editorial to the Fall 2002 LA Forum newsletter.

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Los Angeles, Shopping, Writings

Locating Victor Gruen

April 1, 2000by Alan Loomis 1 Comment

On March 23, 1959 the Kalamazoo City Commission unanimously adopted an ordinance closing two blocks of Burdick Street from automobile traffic. In August of that year, Burdick Street was reopened […]

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History, Shopping, Writings

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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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