L.A. Design Center Los Angeles, California Completed 2003. In 2001,Francisco and Alba Pinedo conceived the idea of creating the Los Angeles Design Center, a furniture showroom district in South Los Angeles that would provide the many manufacturers in the area with a much needed place to show their product.

This project, which completes the first phase of this new complex, involved the renovation of two run down warehouses into a 20,000 square foot space for Cisco Brothers, the Pinedos’ company, and another 60,000 square feet of leasable tanant space. Equally significant is the transformation of the parking lot between the two warehouses into hybridized motor court and event space that serves as the social center of the project.

While it was essential to produce a strong identity for the project,it was equally important that it not to create an unwelcome, foreign presence in the neighborhood. The solution was to layer the buildings with a richly textures, heterogeneous palette of materials and screens – a new set of clothes that see both permanent and impermanent. By turns hiding, revealing, and filtering aspects of the original buildings and the surrounding environment, they animate the character of what is original to the site while simultaneously enriching the public event space as an outdoor foyer for the complex.

Project Team: John Friedman, Alice Kimm
Client:Francisco and Alba Pinedo
General Contractor: Steve Forbes, Brunswick Builders
Structural Engineers:Mackintosh and Mackintos
Lanscape Architect:Michel Schneider, orange Street Studio
Graphic Design:Garza Group Communications,Inc.
Photography: Benny Chan,Fotoworks