High-rise buildings provide unique perspectives of a city, but those views are often accessible only to the people who occupy them. Andy and I wanted to create a high-rise that includes its surroundings, accounting for the pedestrians and drivers who frequent the PCH. How can a building be experiential and inclusive without ever entering it?

This high-rise is situated at the intersection of the Pacific Coast Highway and the end of Sunset Blvd, an iconic piece of Los Angeles which spans from the east to the west of LA. For reference, the site used to hold a 76-gas station, so in terms of site footprint there is not a lot of surface area to work with. The program is a hotel and residential complex, with some commercial spaces. To mitigate the density of traditional high-rises, we split the tower into two and rotated them towards more preferred views. In doing so, everyone has an equal view-and no view is better than the other. The hotel is located on the west side and the residential on the east.

Using glass facade fins, the building acts as a periscope, taking in all its surroundings reflecting glimpses of the ocean, sky and mountains. This building redistributes the views out of the site that otherwise would not have appeared if the building were not present. Because the towers are constructed on a new lifted, peeled ground, the building has no front, no back, no left, and no right.

It is a tribute to the general qualities of high rises that Andy and I did not like.