Capping the freeway Connecting to the outside room

DATE:  2011

PROJECT LOCATION: Santa Monica, California

PROGRAM:  housing, retail, bar, cafe, restaurant, boardwalk, recreational park, farmer’s market, exhibition space & activities; public space.

This project investigates the option of “immediate urban gratification”: fast and now, working on the containment of infrastructural impact by rethinking the interfaces between urban infrastructure and the potential use of its adjacent space. The aim of this project is to cap the freeway to solve the divide created by the Pacific Coast Highway and connect the neighborhood to the beach.

The project proposes a program of living, entertainment and circulation that extends the Wilshire corridor, one of Los Angeles’s busiest streets known for connecting all the major business districts to each other.  The design aims to move pedestrians down a ramp with retail spaces, a farmer’s market, and exhibition spaces. The project houses eighty residential units with private and public amenities and parking to service visitors and the newly proposed transportation hub. The form of the building was created to utilize the beautiful view from the ocean, angling the units to see the islands off the California coast, while mimicking the iconic PCH rocky cliff.