Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) has been awarded a $400,000 grant from ArtPlace that will go toward the planning, design and construction of two arts venues on its campus in downtown Los Angeles, and planning with the community for a third venue in the community across from campus.
"The transformative grant from Artplace gives SCI-Arc a unique opportunity to extend its conceptual design voice by building the 'Hispanic Steps' and the new Outdoor Pavilion for our students, faculty, and the surrounding community," said Director Eric Owen Moss. "If architecture, as SCI-Arc has always proclaimed, speaks by building, the Artplace contribution affords us two special construction moments to ratify what we preach."
The first venue to be designed and built by the school is an indoor amphitheater, dubbed the "Hispanic Steps." Located in the heart of the SCI-Arc building, the open space with rise-seating will be used for lectures, performances, symposia, film series and community meetings. The second venue is a multi-purpose 750-seat outdoor pavilion which will become the Arts District's largest public programming venue. It will provide a welcoming gathering place at the school's entrance and a much-needed sun-shelter in an urban area lacking in green space.
The third component is helping plan with the community for the One Santa Fe arts center, a 99-seat theatre to be located inside a developer-funded, $160 million mixed-use transit oriented development project adjacent to SCI-Arc, designed by noted architect Michael Maltzan.