Monday, October 11, 2010
Architects Envision LA's CleanTech Corridor
Even though the plan by Los Angeles to create a Clean Technology Corridor on the banks of the LA river has yet to advance much beyond the planning stage, a competition pitting architects to create their vision for the clean technology zone has just named winners who have expressed their futuristic visions for what the area might look like.
The Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition design competition asked architects, designers, engineers, students, and others to "re-imagine" what the downtown area Los Angeles corridor could look like. The Cleantech Corridor is a 2,000 acre development zone on the eastern side of downtown Los Angeles, which Los Angeles officials--including Major Antonio Villaraigosa--hope to turn into a center for attracting clean technology companies.
The competition, run by the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) and The Architect's Newspaper, awarded the top prize in the event to Constantin Boincean, Ralph Bertram and Aleksandra Danielak of Oslo, Norway, for their design, "UMBRELLA"; the contest received seventy entries from 11 countries.
The location of LA's planned Clean Technology Corridor runs for about four miles along the Los Angeles river, stretching from Los Angeles State Historic Park, south past Union Station, to just South of the 10 freeway. Based on recent funding activity, most of the clean technology activity in Los Angeles is actually currently in areas such as Santa Monica and Monrovia, with few--if any--companies located in or near the planned Clean Technology Corridor. LA is hoping a clean technology incubator and other incentives might attract those firms to instead locate in what is now a fairly run-down, industrial part of Los Angeles.