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Los Angeles, the world capital of urban motorways, seems to have recently discovered a love of civic architecture. The city and state governments are currently reinventing the downtown LA with a series of high-flying public buildings.

The latest of these is a sleek 13-storey lozenge sandwiched between sheer veil-facades that switch from transparent to opaque with panels that pop open and shut according to the time of day. Designed by Morphosis of Santa Monica, this futuristic building joins the gleaming ice-cream sundae of Frank Gehry鈥檚 Disney Concert Hall, Rafael Moneo鈥檚 monumental Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels and museums by Steven Holl and Rem Koolhaas.

Morphosis鈥� contribution is the 拢103m city headquarters for Caltrans, the California state department of transportation. Despite providing a show-stopping architectural form, the 67,000 m² building was created from scratch in just over two years by means of an innovative design-and-build contract. It is also held up as a model of sustainable architecture.

In 2000, the government department client set up a design-and-build competition in which the architect was appointed by the contractor. The brief looked beyond finding the lowest tender to stress the need for 鈥渨orld-class design excellence, sustainability, integration of art and architecture and a building that contributes to the revitalisation of the civic centre鈥�.

A selection panel that included prominent local architects spent six months working with the 11 initial entrants, narrowing them down to three finalists that included Miralles Tagliabue, architect of the Scottish parliament, and Koolhaas鈥� Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam. Despite the distinguished company, it was the local firm that won the day.

The resulting headquarters building is a long narrow slab block that rises above a lower four-storey podium and a piazza furnished with cafe tables and intended for public events. The open-air piazza actually serves as the building鈥檚 main lobby, which Thom Mayne, principal of Morphosis, claims 鈥渆ngages people actively鈥� so as to 鈥渃ontribute to the civic life of downtown Los Angeles鈥�.

The outdoor lobby is further enlivened by an extraordinary public art installation designed by Keith Sonnier. Entitled Motorodom, this consists of pulsating horizontal ribbons of red and blue neon lights that flash past like car headlights on California鈥檚 motorways.

But it is the building鈥檚 skin that is its most distinctive contribution to architecture and low-energy design. The south-facing end facade is mainly made of photovoltaic cells that generate 92 kW of electricity, or 5% of the building鈥檚 energy consumption. The veil-like side facades, engineered by Arup鈥檚 local office, are composed of perforated aluminium panels that are 48% open and act as a second skin 3 m beyond the actual envelope. Like high-tech versions of traditional Arabic window screens, the panels shade the building to reduce its cooling load while also admitting daylight and presenting an alluring semi-transparent outer skin. And, although the building is a sealed, air-conditioned box, panels of the outer veil open and shut automatically in sequence so as to vary the surface patterns and offer unobstructed views outside.

鈥淎t dusk, the building is transparent 鈥� textured and windowed everywhere to invite the voyeur,鈥� comments Mayne. 鈥淲hile at midday it is buttoned up against the sun, appearing to be devoid of windows entirely, at night the dark facade seems to recede in favour of the outside lobby鈥檚 four-storey-high light sculpture鈥�.

Below this oh-so-cool facade, however, one aspect of the building does not exactly set new standards for 21st-century sustainable urban architecture. The basement of this transportation HQ contains parking for 1142 cars. But hey, this is still LA 鈥�

Project team

client State of California
architect Morphosis, interior architect Gruen Associates
structural engineer John A Martin & Associates
services and facade engineer Arup
design-and-build contractor Clark Construction