Three SOM-designed projects were recognized in this year’s Los Angeles Architectural Awards program. The New United States Courthouse in Los Angeles received the Grand Prize in the Civic category. Pen Factory and the Long Beach Civic Center project each won an award in the Under Construction category. Now in its 47th year, the award competition is hosted by the Los Angeles Business Council, an advocacy and educational organization representing business leaders from diverse industry sectors in the L.A. region.
The New United States Courthouse in Los Angeles, completed in 2016, reflects a design that is both modern in spirit and rooted in classic principles of federal architecture. Located on a prominent block in the city’s Civic Center neighborhood, the 10-story, 633,000-square-foot courthouse holds 24 courtrooms and 32 judicial chambers.
Pen Factory is a sustainable, adaptive reuse project in Santa Monica that is transforming a long-abandoned assembly line manufacturing facility—a former Paper Mate pen factory—into a multi-tenant creative workplace. The renovation is expected to be complete in late 2017.
The Long Beach Civic Center project revitalizes 22 acres of downtown Long Beach by creating a new, vibrant mixed-use district. With an anticipated completion date of 2020, the project includes a 270,000-square-foot City Hall, 93,500-square-foot Main Library, 232,000-square-foot Port Headquarters, and the reactivation of the city’s historic Lincoln Park.
This year’s winning projects ranged from civic buildings and transportation hubs to commercial offices and creative retail. Winners were selected by a jury representing a cross-section of industry experts, including representatives from the City of Los Angeles as well as architects, engineers, and developers. The awards ceremony took place on Thursday, June 22nd, at The Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills.