Honor Award
LAX Gateway
Location
Los Angeles, CA
Client
LA World Airports
Design Firm
Selbert Perkins Design, Santa Monica, CA
Design Team
Robin Perkins (Principal in Charge), Clifford Selbert, Nick Groh, Clint Woesner
Fabricators
Ampersand, Swinerton Wahlberg Co.
Consultants
Ted Tokio Tanaka Architects (architect), IMA Design Group (landscape architect), Lighting Design Alliance (lighting design), Isenberg and Associates, Inc. (art), Ove Arup and Partners (engineer), UCLA Urban Simulation Team
Photographer
Anton Grassl, Andrew Davey, Sinacusa Production
This dynamic landmark gateway into LAX includes 32-feet-high letterforms, a ring of fifteen 120-feet-tall pylons forming a bold gateway into the airport, and equally-spaced columns that steadily increase in height along a two-mile roadway median leading up to the gateway, evoking the experience of take-off and landing. The personality of the gateway dramatically changes at night through the use of computerized lighting effects. Completed in anticipation of the Democratic National Convention, the monument reflects the unity and diversity of the LA experience and serves as a gateway into Los Angeles and the United States.
Jury Comment
"The simple columns are an appropriately scaled solution to improving a non-descript area. The project reminds us that simple solutions are often the best ones. The columns express the futuristic vision of Los Angeles while seeming to sprout from the ground organically. Unobtrusively providing some aesthetic context where it was so desperately needed, the vertical forms and their soft-looking skins make a perfect counterpoint to the concrete ramps surrounding them. Spacing and changes in color make for a dynamic installation."