Emerson College Los Angeles Architecture Essay

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Morphosis Architects-Emerson College Los Angeles One of the most astounding buildings by Morphosis Architects is the ELA (Emerson College Los Angeles) Campus. This fairly new 107,000 sq foot building was designed by Thom Mayne, the prize winner of Pritzker and leader of the Morphosis architect firm. Bringing instructional facilities, administrative offices and student housing to one location, the ELA campus building condenses the college’s diversity into one urban site. It draws on the typology of its Hollywood setting and history, to synthesizes and abstracts ideas about space, surface, as well as social connectivity in the ambitiously scaled metropolitan stage set. The building is made of a series of some interlocking elements starting …show more content…

In the discussion stage of the Emerson Project, the school asked Morphosis Architects for a building with limited private spaces, to encourage the student to utilize the common space. The sort of common space the school wanted was one that could double as set of backgrounds and sound stages for the camera work of their students. With the current rigging for media connection, screens, lighting and sound incorporated in the façade’s metal framework, such a dynamic visual background also acts as a lithe armature capable of accommodating a host of performances and outdoor events. The building turns into a stage-tailored for the student screenings and filming. For instance, the west and east-facing sides of this campus feature some glazed curtain walls screened by the intelligent shading system. The horizontal fin angles in such a backdrop closes and opens to suit the changes in temperature, light as well as the sun’s angle which are all important in video shooting. This is no different to the Hollywood studios. Similar to such studios, false-fronted facades and entrance gates are utilized to backdrop the motion pictures scenes. Consequently, the plazas and step of ELA are designed to dramatically frame moving pictures, and other performances. In addition, the city of Los Angeles, the Pacific Ocean and the Hollywood sign in a distance offer the much-needed