JFAK has been selected to design a new classroom and theater building for Crossroads School, a progressive private K-12 school located in Santa Monica. The building will house classrooms, studios, back-of-house support spaces, offices, and rehearsal rooms to support the school’s drama, dance, film, and music departments. Construction is slated for Fall 2020.
For more information, see Crossroads’ press release here.
JFAK is pleased and privileged to announce that Koreatown Gateway has been given funding and the green light by the City of Los Angeles and the local Council District to move forward into construction.
This cultural marker will span over the busy intersection of Normandie Avenue and Olympic Blvd. in Los Angeles’ Koreatown neighborhood, and is comprised of steel columns, cantilevering steel beams, and a dynamic programmable LED array. Managed by the Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative (LANI), the project has been in the works for a decade, and has received widespread support from local Korean-American business and civic leaders as well as local residents. Designed to embody the unity and strong friendship between South Korea and the City of Los Angeles, and the commonalities evident in their respective innovations in technology, the arts, and culture, the structure celebrates diversity and tradition through the use of symbolic form, color, and bold structural geometry.
For more about the Koreatown Gateway, click here.
The La Kretz Innovation Campus achieved LEED Platinum status for implementing practical and measurable strategies and solutions aimed at achieving high performance in sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. LEED is the foremost program for the design, construction and operation of green buildings. More than 90,000 commercial and institutional projects are currently participating in LEED, comprising more than 2.2 million square feet of construction space in all 50 states.
Alongside our MEP Engineering team at Buro Happold, JFAK transformed the 100-year old warehouse into a state-of-the-art sustainable facility, complete with 150kw photovoltaic panels atop the car park shading structure, a DC microgrid, and a thorough daylight study to ensure optimum placement for solar tubes and roof lighting, among other elements. The project also reduced water waste and usage by selecting drought-tolerant planting, including bioswales, and installing a greywater filtration system.
The La Kretz Innovation Campus serves the City of Los Angeles’ burgeoning clean-technology community. It is an interdisciplinary “innovation hub,” or incubator, where entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists, community activist, and policymakers collaborate, promote, and support the development of Los Angeles’ green economy, complete with laboratories, office spaces, a prototyping center, and event space.
“John Friedman and Alice Kimm—married co–principals of John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects—were waiting for what she calls “simpatico clients who would let us explore the curved forms we’ve used in the interiors of more institutional projects.” That’s precisely what they got when a couple with multicultural heritages—including North African and South American—commissioned a new home in Santa Monica, California. Blame it on the Bossa Nova.”
Read more at interiordesign.net.
JFAK Architects was honored at the 49th Annual Los Angeles Architectural Awards, hosted by the Los Angeles Business Council (LABC) on June 21 at the Beverly Hilton. JFAK’s Homeless Navigation Center in South Los Angeles was selected as a winner in the Under Construction category.
“The 2019 Architectural Awards was our most exceptional yet, with world-class entries and designs that push boundaries and create spaces that foster connection and community,” said Mary Leslie, President of LABC. “This year’s award winners exemplify how architecture can elicit joy, enhance social interaction and promote meaningful experiences where people live work and play.”
The Navigation Center was selected from a competitive pool of hundreds of projects running the gamut from urban micro-living units to beachfront hotels. The center, which will serve Angelenos experiencing homelessness, specifically in Council District 8, was recognized for excellence in the Unbuilt Civic category. Winners were selected by a blind jury panel representing a cross-section of industry experts including architects, construction firms, owners and developers. Winning projects reimagined public spaces, both old and new, to foster community and engender civic pride.
Representatives from JFAK Architects, along with leading architects, city officials, and business leaders, attended the awards ceremony at the Beverly Hilton. For the full list of winning projects, please visit the Los Angeles Business Council website at www.labusinesscouncil.org.
About the Los Angeles Business Council
The Los Angeles Business Council is one of the most effective and influential advocacy and educational organizations in California. For over 70 years, the LABC has had a major impact on public policy by harnessing the power of business and government to promote environmental and economic sustainability in the Los Angeles region. To learn more, please visit www.labusinesscouncil.org.
Principal Alice Kimm joined a group of fellow architects and colleagues to determine the winners of Architectural Record’s 2019 Advertising Excellence Awards. The Advertising Excellence Awards recognize the most effective ads in the building and design marketplace, and the companies and agencies that produce them. Click here for a sneak peek into the jury session, or visit Architectural Record for more information on the awards program.
JFAK's Homeless Navigation Center for the City of Los Angeles’ Council District 8 took home a 2019 Westside Prize Design Award ceremony, hosted by the Westside Urban Forum at the Hotel Casa del Mar in Santa Monica. Associate Derek Greene and Architect Lung Chi Chang accepted the award on behalf of the firm.
Designed using pre-fabricated modular units, the South LA center will serve Angelenos experiencing homelessness by consolidating several services under one roof. It will provide storage for personal belongings, restrooms and showers, laundry facilities, and finally, information and training. We're proud to be among the list of our esteemed colleagues and friends participating in shaping our city.
With their Westside Prize Design Award program, the Westside Urban Forum honors works that help to create to a promising future for the residents of Los Angeles.
To see the full list of award winners or to learn more about the Westside Urban Forum and the Design Awards program, visit their website at www.westsideurbanforum.com.
Judges for the 2019 Gold Nugget Awards have named JFAK Architects as an Award of Merit winner in its annual competition, which honors architectural design and planning excellence and draws entries from throughout the United States and internationally. JFAK earned its Merit honors for AIRE Santa Monica and Casa Namorada, which were honored for multi-family and single-family categories, respectively.
Chosen from the elite pool of Merit Award winners, Grand Awards will be announced on May 31 as a feature highlight of PCBC®, the nation’s largest regional conference and trade show for the real estate development field. “Gold Nugget Award winners reflect our industry’s best, brightest and most innovative architects, planners and builder/developers,” said Judging Chairman and Gold Nugget ceremonies administrator Lisa Parrish. “We applaud them all, and we forward to our May 31 celebration of Merit and Grand Award winners.”
Now in its 56th year, GNA is the largest and most prestigious competition of its kind in the nation. It honors design and planning achievements in community and home design, green-built housing, site planning, commercial, retail, mixed-use development and specialty housing categories. Winners this year were chosen from over 600 entries from around the world.
Read more about the awards program and the other winners in PCBC’s 56ths Annual Gold Nugget Awards on PCBC’s website, at www.pcbc.com.
JFAK Architects’ Casa Namorada was awarded a Residential Architecture Award (RAAs) by the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles Chapter (AIA|LA) last night at a ceremony in Los Angeles. The project earned an Award of Merit in the Single-Family Residential category (up to 5000 SF). The project’s Design Principal, John Friedman, FAIA, accepted the award on behalf of the firm.
Judges shared, “The curves of this building are stunning. Excellent use of the floating elements in the front façade and then having the back side open up and completely connect to the garden; it’s a great duality.”
For more information on the awards program, the jury, and the other winners, please see AIA|LA’s official press release at www.aialosangeles.org.
We’re happy to share that JFAK has been selected as the Executive Architect for University of California, San Diego's Main Gymnasium and Natatorium project renovation and expansion. Originally completed in 1968, the buildings are excellent examples of Mid-century Modern Architecture, and a portion of the buildings’ facade is historically protected. The project will include approximately 64,300 SF of renovation, restoration, and seismic retrofit, and an approximately 10,000 SF addition. It is intended to be certified LEED Silver at minimum. We're excited to work with the UCSD community to breathe new life into this pair of iconic buildings.
Interior Design featured JFAK’s Roberts Pavilion at Claremont McKenna College today as one of these recent projects worth cheering for. Check out the other 11 projects at interiordesign.com
Image Credit: Adoramassey
JFAK was named one of the top 50 firms shaping the Los Angeles skyline by Interior Design Magazine in this year’s PowerGridLA ranking. The overall ranking, based on all applicable information available at the time, as interpreted by Interior Design, is an evaluation of the top 50 firms based on their total square footage of development projects completed in the past 18 months combined with ones the firms are currently working on. The survey requested information on firms’ development projects completed in the past 18 months and current on-the-boards development projects within downtown L.A., Arts District, Culver City, Santa Monica, Venice Beach, Long Beach, and Pasadena. The data was compiled and analyzed by the Interior Design market research staff in New York, led by Wing Leung, research director. Read more at interiordesign.com
Alice Kimm spoke on Identity, Innovation, and Placemaking at a UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design as part of a lecture series co-sponsored by AIA East Bay.
Alice Kimm will be participating in UC Berkeley’s Spring 2019 Lecture Series, created in partnership with AIA East Bay.
The lecture will take place February 13th at UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design. It will begin at 7:30PM in 112 Wurster Hall and is open to the public.
