Posts tagged Los Angeles Architecture
Adrián Villar Rojas and Sparano + Mooney Architecture Create “Theater” at MOCA

Sparano + Mooney Architecture and our team of Los Angeles architects and designers have established a fantastic working relationship with The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, and we were delighted when the institution approached us to provide architectural services and interior remodeling for their latest exhibition of cutting-edge contemporary art, titled Adrián Villar Rojas: The Theater of Disappearance. We have also collaborated with MOCA on acclaimed shows by Matthew Barney and of works from the 1990s at the museum, and were more than happy to partner on this occasion to bring Villar Rojas’ eclectic and boundary-defying art to The Geffen’s savvy audience.

For this show, Sparano + Mooney Architecture worked with Villar Rojas’ proposed layout for the exhibit, made modifications in order for it to comply with current codes, such as building and fire, and also collaborated with structural engineers to ensure columnar components of the space held up.

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The Glorious Getty: Art + Architecture

Sparano + Mooney Architecture loves art and culture – and as contemporary architects in Los Angeles, we also adore examples of institutions in this great city that combine these passions and pursuits. Which is why we are crazy about the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center and the treasure trove it offers throughout its sprawling California campus. Housing an expansive collection of European paintings, drawings, sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, photography, textiles and decorative arts created from antiquity to the present, the museum serves diverse local and international audiences and continually offers groundbreaking exhibitions and programming to the public. The Getty Center’s overriding mission is to “inspire curiosity about, and enjoyment and understanding of, the visual arts by collecting, conserving, exhibiting and interpreting works of art of outstanding quality and historical importance”. Now that’s a mission we can support!

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Design Arts '17 Exhibition at the Rio Gallery

Do you love arts, culture, design and architecture? Why not visit the Rio Gallery in downtown Salt Lake City, where our award-winning LOOP Bench is on display as part of the Design Arts '17 exhibition?

The Design Arts platform is an annual review dedicated to the promotion of excellence in the diverse fields of design in Utah. They strive to help community members see, experience, utilize and value the art of design that surrounds us.

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Loop Bench

For Sparano + Mooney Architecture, great design at all scales is at the heart of our practice. We are urban architects based in Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. As you may know we are engaged in developing architecture, urban designs and products and deliver these thoughtful, innovative and contemporary designs to accommodate our client’s vision and lifestyle. Yes, we design large-scale buildings – museums, performing arts centers, recreation and aquatic centers, mountain-modern residences, and centers of worship – but we also apply our creativity to smaller scale manifestations of our architectural mindset and are eager to continue developing this facet of our practice. This is why we were thrilled when a client contacted us about our design competition winner, the Loop Bench, and commissioned us to produce one as a memorial for installation in a specially-selected spot along the beach strand in the City of Manhattan Beach, California.

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The Los Angeles Design Festival: Celebrating L.A.'s Design Culture

It's that time of year Angelenos! The Los Angeles Design Festival kicks off this week, and will take place from June 8 - June 11 across the metropolis. Honoring L.A's status as a global design capital, the festival celebrates the city's rich design culture, with a purposefully broad definition of the term "design" in order to reflect L.A.'s diverse and exceptional talent. 

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The Beauty of Imperfection in Architecture

In an era of quick-fix consumerism, it might be tempting to eschew the flawed in favor of the refined. Why mend a broken flower pot when a shiny new model can easily, and cheaply, be acquired from any number of big-box stores that continue to pop up in our neighborhoods? Why refinish 100 year-old wood floors when synthetic, sanitized replacement planks can be laid instead? Well – why not? What is the true cost of this “modern” need to resolve all that is deficient? This is a poignant question, one that hints at a new wave of appreciation for the true and the humble in all facets of life, including architecture and design.

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Project Updates from Sparano + Mooney Architecture

2017 has thus far been busy for the Sparano + Mooney Architecture team and we are pleased to bring you a report on our progress! We remain committed to collaborating with our clients to produce great design, deliver thoughtful, innovative and contemporary design solutions, and position our exceptional people at dynamic centers of architecture. As architects working throughout the American West, Sparano + Mooney Architecture is dedicated to elevating a strong regional design movement and we welcome the opportunity to discuss your next civic, cultural, performing arts, master planning, worship, mixed-use, residential or commercial project. In the meantime, perhaps the updates below will help inspire!

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California Cool: The Met Archive goes Digital, Online, and Free

Smooth aesthetics, a razor sharp cultural focus, and the cutting edge of art, architecture and design – for those who call Los Angeles home, it might be all bright-lights-big-city, the epicenter of California cool and an endless vista of sophisticated whimsy, but we rarely stop to ponder from where this wellspring of American popular culture was sprung. As contemporary Los Angeles architects, we are constantly influenced by the legacy of SoCal pioneers such as Charles and Ray Eames, Richard Neutra, and John Lautner. But what about those who came before? Those who laid the ground work, built the infrastructure of architecture we now enjoy, and first realized the potential of this light and languid landscape; who saw a future in the mountainous backdrop and promoted a substance of architectural style to the masses who might want to go west and prosper? Thanks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which has recently digitized a large portion of its photographic design archive, we can now glimpse the nascence of the metropolis and its surrounding territory.

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The Global, the Local and the Authentic in Contemporary Architecture

No matter which side of the aisle your views rest upon, it is generally agreed that the world is moving into uncharted socio-political and economic territory. As modern architects living and working in the American West, we can’t help but wonder how this new order will affect our industry: How will clients feel about the home of their dreams when their dreams may no longer reflect reality? Alternatively, will others feel bolstered by the changes that have occurred and want to invest further in their future on terra firma? What will happen to the cost of architecture, and the materials and labor of its construction? How will a shifting perception of the “local” versus the “global” influence the way our architects design and how our clients view contemporary architecture?

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A Phoenix Rises in Los Angeles: Architects Restore the Ft. Moore Pioneer Memorial

What do a London-born sculptor, Connecticut-based/German-native artist, the Mormon Battalion of Salt Lake City, Mormon Battalion of Council Bluffs, Iowa, and our firm of Los Angeles architects have in common? The answer might surprise you: the Ft. Moore Pioneer Memorial in Los Angeles, California. As reported on the front page of the Los Angeles Times on Saturday, January 28th, 2017, thanks to generous support from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and with the technical and design team at  Sparano + Mooney Architecture, the “forgotten memorial” is undergoing critical restoration to return the monument to its original civic glory. 

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An Artist among Us: The Sketches of Jorge Beltran

There’s no doubt about it – the Sparano + Mooney Architecture team are a talented bunch. We work hard to deliver thoughtful, innovative and contemporary design solutions; every day striving to produce beautiful architecture for our amazing clients. The interpretation of an idea from start to finish often involves numerous iterations of sketches, renders and plans. Putting pen, pencil and brush to paper is a key aspect of our practice and drawing skills are essential to the profession. But did you know that our team member Jorge Beltran, who recently celebrated eleven years with the firm, also produces phenomenal sketches at work and in his free time and is a supremely talented artist in his own right? We are blown away by Jorge’s talent, and interviewed him to discover more about his work.

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From Venice Beach to the Venice Architecture Biennale: the “Wayward Eye” of Denise Scott Brown

Every two years, the international architecture community comes together for a truly inspirational presentation: the Venice Architecture Biennale. Held in Venice, Italy, the 2016 edition runs from May 28th until November 27th, and includes 88 participants from 37 countries, as well as 62 national participants and a curated selection of associated events. The Biennale is truly THE place to engage with cutting-edge, thought-provoking architecture – which is why, when Anne Mooney and John Sparano recently visited Venice, they understandably made the Biennale the focus of their stay. Here, we present a blog series about their architectural discoveries…

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