Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden

Sculpture of Frank Murphy (photo by Steven Chavez)

The Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden is located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles. The garden consists of more than five acres and holds more than 70 sculptures. Sculptures include works from artists such as Jean Arp, Alexander Calder, Anthony Caro, Jacques Lipchitz, Henri Matisse, Isamu Noguchi, Auguste Rodin, and David Smith.

Button Flower by Alexander Calder
(photo by Steven Chavez)

Halfway by Anthony Caro (photo by Steven Chavez)

The idea for the garden began in 1960 by UCLA Chancellor Franklin Murphy. Murphy, a philanthropist who studied plazas and gardens during his travels to Europe, believed that art was most pleasurable when experienced daily. A 5 acre parking lot surrounded by college buildings on the north end of the UCLA campus -- became the site for fulfilling his vision of creating a public sculpture garden that would be enjoyed as part of everyday life on the university.

Landscape architect Ralph D. Cornell, who served as UCLA's supervising landscape architect from 1934 to 1972, was commissioned to design the garden that opened in 1967. Cornell designed a tripartite plan that includes an allee of South African coral trees, a formal brick plaza, and an informal lawn with curvilinear paths that weave the garden and surrounding buildings together. Multiple seating areas include open seating -- such as linear benches, as well as private seating areas composed of tucked alcoves.

Allee of Coral Trees (photo by Steven Chavez)

Central Lawn with Curvilinear Path (photo by Steven Chavez)

Linear Seating in Allee (photo by Steven Chavez)

Seating Alcove (photo by Steven Chavez)

Cornell also included a diverse palette of plants. He combined Murphy's idea of space with the characteristic plantings of Southern California. Eucalyptus, California sycamores and Brazilian jacarandas were included in Cornell's plant selections.

Landscape construction and design qualities are evident throughout the garden. Like sculpture, the landscape installation exhibits a high degree of skill and craftsmanship. Seating alcoves are formed with sculptural shapes, and the plaza is skillfully inlaid with brick paving. The garden's proportion is exceptional -- and is the common thread that makes visiting the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden rewarding both visually and experientially.

L.A.'s Grand Park

Grand Park from The Music Center (photo by Steven Chavez)

Grand Park in Downtown Los Angeles is located on an axis connecting the base of City Hall with L.A.'s Music Center at the top of Bunker Hill. The park is designed by Los Angeles based RCH Studios, and is part of the larger Grand Avenue Project. One of The Grand Avenue Project's goals for the park is to create a thriving urban center.

The first phase of the park opened on Thursday, July 26, 2012 and followed with a weekend of public inaugural events that coincided with National Dance Day on Saturday, July 28, and Music in the Park on Sunday, July 29. SCA-LARC visited the park on National Dance Day and was pleased to see the amount of people who attended and participated in the opening events.

Dance Class on the Performance Lawn (photo by Steven Chavez)

A main feature of Grand Park is the historic Arthur J. Will Memorial Fountain. The 1960s-era fountain (seen in films including 500 Days of Summer) has been restored and expanded to increase its viability as an interactive water feature for park users. On National Dance Day, kids and adults were enjoying the expanded wade-able water feature -- a sheath of pooling water with choreographed water jets pointing upward.

Restored and expanded Arthur J. Miller Fountain (photo by Steven Chavez)

Grand Park as a whole is opening in phases. This first phase opening includes the fountain plaza "block" and the performance lawn "block." The next phase, the community terrace, is scheduled to open at the end of August, 2012. The final phase, the event lawn, will open at the base of city hall in October, 2012.

Will Grand Park be a catalyst in creating a thriving Los Angeles urban center? An arguement can be made against the park's potential success by looking at its connection with Hill Street and its sidewalk. The decision to keep the existing underground parking garage and associated ramps at Hill Street has led to a largely severed park-street connection. Despite the compromised connection with Hill Street, the first phase of Grand Park has the makings of being a place that will foster a more socially dynamic and visually appealing central open space in Los Angeles.  

Two Running Violet V Forms

Two Running Violet V Forms (photo by Steven Chavez)

Artist Robert Irwin's Two Running Violet V Forms were installed in 1983 on the campus of the University of California San Diego. They are in a eucalyptus grove with several walking paths that connect different areas of the university. The artwork is Irwin's first permanent installation in California and is part of the Stuart Collection, which includes works by several artists that are placed throughout the UC San Diego campus.    

Initially the artwork can be ambiguous. The violet panels appear as geometrical man-made forms placed in contrast to a naturally occurring landscape. This is conveyed by the visual contrasts between the synthetic materials of the panels, and the natural unevenness seen in the trunks, branches and leaves of the trees. However, the eucalyptus trees are not native to the region and were planted like the panels in a geometrical grid pattern. The artwork ultimately aids in revealing that both the panels and the trees are results of man-made environmental interventions.

Light also plays a role in the artwork. The panels are flecked when the sun is filtered through the eucalyptus leaves, and appear transparent when unfiltered perpendicular light reaches them. On cloudy days, the panels gain density and are a concentrated blue-violet.

Flecked with Light (photo by Steven Chavez)

Nearly Transparent (photo by Steven Chavez)

Saturated in Color (photo by Steven Chavez)

The two running forms are inserted into the grove in V-shapes and are carried by twenty five feet tall stainless steel posts. The screens are made of blue-violet plastic coated tight gauged chain link fencing. They are placed at a constant elevation, which differentiates the gently sloping terrain beneath them. Magenta flowering iceplant is planted linearly along the dripline of the panels.

V-Formed Panels (photo by Steven Chavez)

The artwork is viewed by path users that cross the grove to reach their campus destinations. The panels are never obstructions for walkers as they are placed high above the ground. Their occurrence provides a continually shifting display of visual interest that ranges from their near disappearance to their robust stripes of running color.

Pacoima Neighborhood City Hall

Pacoima Neighborhood City Hall (photo by Steven Chavez)

Pacoima is a neighborhood of Los Angeles that has recently built and opened a new city hall -- the Pacoima Neighborhood City Hall. The building is located on Van Nuys Boulevard between Laurel Canyon Boulevard and San Fernando Road. It is across the street from the Pacoima Branch Library and is located in the heart of the community's business district, which includes service shops and restaurants.

The building was designed by RoTo Architects of Los Angeles, with landscape architectural services provided by Mia Lehrer + Associates, also a local firm. RoTo Architects designed the building as two freestanding structures linked by a sky bridge that runs above an open breezeway. The breezeway works as a portal that connects Van Nuys Boulevard to the inner landscape of the site. The landscape is partially built over an underground parking structure and provides flexible open space, as well as zones that encourage a variety of activities.

Elements in the landscape include a covered patio, a lawn, and outdoor theater seating with a screen for watching movies at night. A mural of Pacoima residents, including singer Richie Valens and football player Charles White, is also an element of the landscape.

Covered Patio (photo by Steven Chavez)

Lawn Area (photo by Steven Chavez)

Seating for Outdoor Theater (photo by Steven Chavez)

Outdoor Movie Screen (photo by Steven Chavez)

Mural of Pacoima Residents (photo by Steven Chavez)

A curtain wall of glass with an angular planting bed of drought tolerant plants faces the sidewalk along Van Nuys Boulevard.

Looking East on Van Nuys Boulevard (photo by Steven Chavez)