DTLA Arts District Tour

DTLA Arts District Tour

Architects and designers will guide a tour of Downtown LA’s vibrant Arts District.

We will start with a visit to the Kvadrat Showroom designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. This two-story, light-filled space features raw wooden structures and bold textile wall panels.

Then we visit the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA) – an epicenter of artistic experimentation and incubator of new ideas. Designed by Why Architects, the space blurs the lines between visitors and staff to create a mutually immersive and welcoming space.

Next, we stop by Scott Johnson’s painting studio in the Toy Factory Lofts to view his artwork and hear about his experience living and working in this complex neighborhood.

We end with our visit to the new home of HOK LA, an architectural office located at ROW DTLA and designed with wellness and inclusivity in mind.

The tour will finish with a discussion by Chris Kitchen, Asset Manager at ROW DTLA. Chris will discuss the history, vision and future of the ROW development along with how other developments are transforming the Arts district.

Breakfast and Lunch provided as part of the tour.

AIA CES: 4 LU|HSW Approved

Please scan QR Code for TOUR MAP and ROW DTLA Information

Tour Stops & Credits

1. Kvadrat Showroom

Architect and Designer: Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec
Local Architect: SODA & Henry Buckingham, Meter, Los Angeles
(Breakfast will be provided)

2. Institute of Contemporary Art , Los Angeles

Architect: WHY Architects
Structural Engineer KFSE
MEP Engineer CEG
Acoustical Engineer CSDA

3. Scott Johnson’s Painting Studio @Toy Factory Lofts

Architect: Scott Johnson

4. HOK Los Angeles Offices

Architect: HOK
Sustainability = HOK
MEP = Henderson Engineers
Furniture Dealer / Manufacture = Tangram / Steelcase / AMQ

5. ROW DTLA

Architect/Landscape Architect: RIOS
Executive Architect: House & Robertson Architects, Inc.

(Lunch will be provided)

Fees & Parking –  Participants are responsible for parking fees at The Row. 

Guides

Belinda Ottobre, Sales Manager A & E, Kvadrat

Belinda has been working for Kvadrat both in Australia and the US for nearly 15 years combined. She studied both Graphic and Interior Design at University and added to her qualifications later on in working career with a Diploma in Lighting Engineering. Belinda has moved into working with the Architecture & End User Segment within Kvadrat on the Los Angeles team and is excited to be able to use her skills gained over her career with the company to educate and provide design driven solutions in Interior Architecture.

Courtney Griffiths, Sales Manager, Architecture & End User, Kvadrat

Courtney Griffiths graduated Hamilton College in Upstate New York with a Bachelor of Arts in Art History focusing on Modern and Japanese art in the early aughts. Originally from the east coast she started her career in New York working closely with the residential and commercial interior design communities as an Architect & Design Manager for Knoll and later Gunlocke and Vitra which brought her to Los Angeles. She is a part of the Architecture & End User segment at Kvadrat calling on much of the Western region where she is finding her passion for art and design an easy transition into the world of textiles.

(Photo Credit: Lesley Bohm)

Scott Johnson, FAIA – Design Partner, Johnson Fain

Scott Johnson is the Design Partner at Johnson Fain, an international architecture, planning and interior design firm based in Los Angeles. A prolific designer of residential, institutional, and commercial buildings, a number of his best-known designs are widely published and have become local landmarks. Mr. Johnson is an alum of Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley and Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. His early professional career included periods at The Architects’ Collaborative in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Skidmore Owings & Merrill in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and the office of Philip Johnson and John Burgee in New York City. Joining Pereira Associates in Los Angeles in 1983 as Principal and Design Director, he and William Fain acquired the firm now known as Johnson Fain in 1988. In addition to designing nearly 130 built projects in the past 35 years, Johnson has also taught and lectured at various universities and has served as Director of the Master of Architecture Programs at the University of Southern California’s School of Architecture. He is the author of the recent Essays on the Tall Building and the City, his third book on tall buildings; as well as The Big Idea: Criticality and Practice in Contemporary Architecture; and Tectonics of Place I & II: The Architecture of Johnson Fain.

Anne Ellegood, Good Works Executive Director, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA) 

Anne Ellegood has been the Good Works Executive Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA) since September 2019. Prior to that, she was the Senior Curator at the Hammer Museum for ten years, where in addition to organizing exhibitions and building the collection, she oversaw the Hammer Projects series and the Public Engagement program. She has also held curatorial posts at the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden in Washington DC and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City. In 2021, she co-curated the group exhibition Witch Hunt with Connie Butler, Chief Curator at the Hammer Museum. At the Hammer, she organized Made in L.A. 2018 (co-curated with Erin Christovale); Jimmie Durham: At the Center of the World (2017); and Take It or Leave It: Institution, Image, Ideology (2014; co-curated with Johanna Burton); as well as numerous other solo exhibitions, including those with Diana Al-Hadid, Kevin Beasley, Shannon Ebner, Latifa Echakhch, Charles Gaines, Friedrich Kunath, Yunhee Min, John Outterbridge, and Tschabalala Self. Ellegood serves on the Board of Directors of the non-profit arts organization JOAN in Los Angeles and on advisory committees for the Center for Art, Research, and Alliances (CARA) in New York City and Protocinema in New York City and Istanbul. Ellegood received her MA in Curatorial Practice from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and was a 2020 Fellow at the Center for Curatorial Leadership.

Amanda Sroka, Senior Curator, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA) 

Amanda Sroka is a curator whose creative work focuses on global histories of contemporary art with an emphasis on interdisciplinary practices and a specialized interest in artwork that operates at the intersections of our personal, political, and material worlds. She is the Senior Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles where she has recently organized presentations dedicated to the work of Milford Graves and Christine Sun Kim. Forthcoming projects at ICA LA include solo exhibitions by Carmen Argote, Alberta Whittle, and Trương Công Tùng. From 2014 to 2022, she was the Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art where she organized solo exhibitions with Martine Syms, Zoe Leonard, Senga Nengudi, Marisa Merz, Yael Bartana, and Jitish Kallat as well as a forthcoming exhibition with Lawrence Abu Hamdan. There, she also curated collaborative group exhibitions including Philadelphia Assembled with artist Jeanne van Heeswijk (2017) and Fault Lines: Contemporary Abstraction by Artists from South Asia featuring the work of Tanya Goel, Sheela Gowda, Prabhavathi Meppayil, and Zarina (2020). Prior to her time in Philadelphia, Sroka was a curatorial assistant at the New Museum in New York.

Brian Butterfield, Director, Museums, WHY Architecture

Brian joined WHY in 2019 as the Director of the newly formed Museums Workshop. He is leading WHY’s expanding portfolio of museum and arts projects; and in strategic consulting and design for new and evolving museums, rethinking the relationship between the hardware of the museum’s physical form, and the software of its operations, programming, and visitor experience on-site and online.
Before joining WHY, Brian was the Senior Design Manager for Exhibitions and Capital Projects at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. There, he managed a team of architects, exhibition designers, producers, and lighting designers, executing over sixty temporary and permanent projects annually, including all exhibitions at the Met 5th Avenue and the Met Breuer. Brian is conversant in all aspects of museum best practices and brings 15 years of experience in architecture, exhibition casework, scenic, and furniture design to WHY.

(Photo Credit: Howard Wise)

Mike Goetz, AIA, ASID, IIDA, Principal, Director of Design, Interiors, HOK

Mike Goetz, AIA, ASID, IIDA, LEED AP is the Director of Design, Interiors, in HOK’s Los Angeles studio. He guides design teams in the creation and development of a project’s overall design concept. He excels at creating highly functional and efficient environments that are unique, inspirational and colorful. As a design thought leader, Mike has collaborated on many notable workplace, hospitality and higher education projects. He previously worked as a designer in HOK’s New York and Chicago studios. Mike has been published in multiple publications, including Interior Design magazine, and has participated on panel discussions about workplace design and employee engagement.

Chris Kitchen, Director of Asset Management, ROW DTLA 

Mr. Kitchen joined Atlas in 2020. He is responsible for the asset management of ROW DTLA including overseeing leasing, property operations, capital projects and investor reporting. Prior to joining Atlas, Mr. Kitchen was a Vice President of Development at Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield where he was responsible for the redevelopment and repositioning of retail and mixed use assets in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Mr. Kitchen graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor’s degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering, and earned a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.

Timeline:

Parking: ROW DTLA – 777 S Alameda St, Los Angeles, CA 90021

8:45 – 9:45 am: Kvadrat Showroom [Entire Group]

Breakfast

Introduction by AIA|LA IAC Committee Chair Tina Aghassian and Vice-Chair Suma Spina

Presentation of Space by Kvadrat

10 – 10:40 am: Institute of Contemporary Art Tour and Discussion by Brian Butterfield of Why Architecture

10:50 am – 11:30 am: Tour group splits between Bike Shed visit and Scott Johnson’s Painting Studio at Toy Factory Lofts [20 min. at each location]

11:45 -12:30 pm: HOK [Entire Group]

Tour of HOK office by Mike Goetz

Discussion by Chris Kitchen, Asset Manager at ROW DTLA

12:40 -1:30 pm: Lunch at the Rooftop [Entire Group]

ROW DTLA – 777 S Alameda St, Los Angeles, CA 90021

Learning Objectives:

+ Participants will experience a variety of architectural spaces and understand first-hand from the developer /designers how industrial spaces can be transformed to desirable spaces.
+ Participants will be able to learn about repurposing historically significant buildings into the urban fabric to create vibrancy in the area.
+ Participants will understand the design principles of using simple, industrial materials and raw textures to create sophisticated spaces.
+ Participants will be able to learn about the revitalization of industrial buildings into welcoming and creative office spaces with the use of greenery to blur the lines between the industrial and natural environments.
+ Participants will be able to view the work of contemporary artists in spaces that are conducive to the creative experience, while blurring the lines between public and private spaces.

Tour Sponsored By: