News

Marion Davies Seismic Renovation / BioMedical Library Project

Barton Phelps, & Associates has been selected by UCLA as design architect for the Marion Davies Seismic Renovation / BioMedical Library at the Geffen School of Medicine.

The project is intended to retrofit and expand the former Marion Davies Children’s Hospital as a new biomedical library / study center. The facility will serve students and faculty from Medical Education, Nursing, Public Health and Life Sciences and link it to the Center for Health Sciences and a proposed Medical Education Building. Program components include reading rooms, teaching and collaborative learning spaces, book storage, and staff / administrative offices. The project will be designed to target LEED™ Gold.

Designed by Welton Beckett Associates and completed in 1962, the existing 75,000 square foot Marion Davies Center currently houses offices, laboratories and meeting facilities of the medical school’s Department of Pediatrics. Set in an elevated planted courtyard in the southeast corner of the UCLA campus, the site is located between the seven-acre Mildred Mathias Botanical Garden and the two million square foot Center for Health Sciences. (see attached photo)The first phase a program of lateral resistance strengthening that will elevate the building’s UC seismic rating from “poor” to “good” and provide code and ADA-related upgrades. Barton Phelps & Associates is undertaking the $25 to $35 million project in association with Nabih Youssef Associates, Structural Engineers and Harley Ellis Devereaux as executive architect.

Barton Phelps & Associates is also currently completing its design for the seismic renovation of the UCLA School of Public Health. In addition to improving seismic performance the design structures the building’s operation as a major campus portal, converts underutilized entry space to classrooms, and gives new campus identity to School of Public Health. Designed to allow normal academic operations to continue during construction, the installation of 850 cubic yards of concrete sets the tectonic theme on the interior of the Dean’s new administrative suite. The diagonal lines new seismic load path and of foot traffic through the building shape administrative spaces and Verdant “Green Screen” cladding distinguishes the School when seen from the street. (see attached plan and rendering)

New Addition: Gregory Y. Cheng

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Gregory Cheng as Designer and Coordinator of Graphic Systems.

Greg’s experience in campus master planning, university facilities and alternative re-use of major structures as well as with procedures of the Division of the State Architect aligns closely with our current work. Other welcome design and production experience includes laboratories, sports facilities, multi-family housing and student housing.

He’s worked on both coasts and the Deep South as well as in Europe and Asia and comes to BPA from the Los Angeles office Behnisch Architekten, the distinguished German firm with headquarters in Stuttgart.

Greg is highly computer proficient. His skills in graphic design and image manipulation. are supported by a range of applications that includes Adobe CS: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign / AutoCAD / Revit / Rhinoceros 3D / Sketchup

A Cincinati native, Greg holds a B.A. in Architecture with a minor in Organizational Behavior from Miami University (Ohio) and an M.Arch. from the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan. A talented designer in his own right, his academic projects have received national and international attention in architectural exhibitions and publications.

A Good Hand

For Barton Phelps, FAIA, Principal, the New Year, 2012 marks forty years of practice in residential design.

In recognition, BPA has created a handsomely printed deck of illustrated cards that proposes "9 Thoughts on Houses" for prospective clients considering building new or remodeling.

Click here to download PDF or, if you would like to receive a hard copy, please contact Lou Sabas, our Office Manager, at (323) 934-8615, extension 101 or lsabas@bpala.com.

Projects

  • BPA has been selected as Executive Architect for the UCLA School of Public Health Seismic Correction Project. The project involves design and construction of seismic corrections to the seven-story, 142, 500 square foot complex on the UCLA campus. Pre-design studies are underway to validate the current seismic design scheme and evaluate site constraints and construction costs in order to determine the ultimate configuration of the project.
  • The project will be designed to meet the requirements and intent of University of California Regent's Policy on Sustainable Practices and in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
  • BPA has completed initial designs for the new UCLA Academic Advancement Center. This privately funded project will be the first campus structure specifically designed to assist students having difficulty with academic studies.
  • Consistent with our interest in "buildings as landscape", BPA recently completed construction of Garden House, a finely crafted residence in Virginia designed to accentuate relationships between garden spaces and spaces within the house. BPA collaborated with landscape architects, Michael Vergason Associates of Alexandria, Virginia. Barton Phelps, FAIA, Principal Architect has remarked that the house, unusual for the suburban landscape in which it is set, is "part ranch house, part Palladian villa, part dog-trot log cabin".
  • Arroyo House, the home of Barton Phelps, FAIA and his wife, Karen Simonson was selected by the American Friends of the Louvre as the site of a February benefit dinner as part of its Celebration of Contemporary American Architecture. The Los Angeles event was one in a series to be held this year in major cities around the United States in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of I.M. Pei’s Pyramid project at the Louvre. Henri Loyrette, Président-directeur, Musée du Louvre and Christopher Forbes, President of the AFL addressed attendees.
  • BPA has prepared initial designs for expansion of our East Building of the University Elementary School at UCLA to include a sustainable multi-purpose auditorium / gymnasium, additional classrooms, and an outdoor assembly area on the 5-acre existing UES (now called the "UCLA Lab School") campus.

New Website Design

  • As you may have noticed, the BPA website has been enlarged and reformatted for enhanced user navigation. The new look was designed and implemented by Los Angeles-based internet artist, Guthrie Lonergan.

People

  • Drawings prepared by Barton Phelps, FAIA for a studio conducted by Sir James Stirling in 1970, are featured in the exhibition, "An Architect's Legacy: James Stirling's students at Yale, 1959-1983" that runs from October 13 to January 28 in Rudolf hall at the Yale School of Architecture. The ink drawings (and model photograph) are part of a scheme for new civic halls for Derby, England, location of the headquarters of Rolls Royce Motorcars.
  • Barton Phelps, FAIA recently returned from an independent architectural study tour in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden with a group of architects and scholars from Los Angeles.Surveys of built works included the following topics:
    • Norwegian Stave Churches: the wooden churches of the late pagan / Christian transitional period located in Haltdalen (c.1170), Urnes (1130 – 50), Kaupanger (c.1190), and Borgund (c.1190).
    • Agrarian log framed /sod roofed building construction in western Norway and as collected and preserved in Trondheim and Oslo.
    • Early modern architecture in and around Stockholm, especially the early modernist and transitional works of Gunnar Asplund, Sigurd Lewerentz, and Ragnar Ostberg.
    • Contemporary scenic highway overlook design under the auspices of the Norwegian government.
    • Recently completed performing arts facilities in Copenhagen.
  • Barton Phelps, FAIA served as a member of the AIA 21st Century Embassy Task Force with the Bureau for Overseas Building Operations of the United Stated State Department that recently published “Design for Diplomacy: New Embassies for the 21st Century”.
  • David Haggerty, AIA, Senior Associate has been certified as LEED Accredited Professional. He was also recently certified in Revit Architecture 2010 as a part of BPA’s conversion to Building Information Modeling as the focus of our project delivery procedure.
  • Barton Phelps, FAIA has been reappointed by Los Angeles Mayor, Mayor Antonio Villaragosa to the Design Advisory Panel of the Cultural Affairs Commission of the City of Los Angeles. In this capacity, he recently consulted with Los Angeles World Airports and Fentress Architects on the design of the new International Terminal at LAX
  • Barton Phelps, FAIA has been recommisioned to serve as professional advisor to the Design Review Committee of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
  • Barton Phelps, FAIA chaired the 2010 Design Awards Jury for the AIA / Golden Empire Chapter. He also served as a member of the national AIA jury for Young Architects’ Forum / Committee on Design Ideas Competition.

Recent Media Recognition

  • Three BPA projects appear in 1000 x : Architects of the Americas, a survey of 1000 recent building in North and South America published in Switzerland by Baum.They are:
    • Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, San Pedro, California
    • Arts Building and Commons, the Thacher School, Ojai, California
    • River House, Osage county, Missouri