Westside DIGS | Digital Edition Online

May 19, 2023

DIGS is the premiere luxury real estate lifestyle magazine serving the most affluent neighborhoods in the South Bay and Westside of Los Angeles, California.

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5.19.23 | DIGS.NET 19 R E S T O R AT I O N | B R U N O G A U D I N A R C H I T E C T E S P H O T O S : T A K U J I S H I M M U R A that idea translated in a stupendous metallic spiral that lends aesthetic tension to an antique canvas that had become stodgy without something fresh. One would not dare classify the new staircase in simple utilitarian terms as "a fire safety necessity" that "can be punished in a dark corner of the plan, caged, disappearing from our view." Indeed not. To that end, the library's Oval Room remains a dramatic, gasp-inducing astonishment. Fully refreshed with mirrored lighting and modern shelving, this skylit space is At the start of the process, in 2007, the practice had in its possession a labyrinth. Confronted with a "vast tangle" of spaces built over three centuries, the building was a cramped, slow creep of accumulation from "constant transformations, enlargements, demolitions and densifications." Just like a great book can drift outside the margins, revealing something unexplored, the architects discovered behind the library's well-ordered stone facades "hidden buildings that [had] been redesigned or even rebuilt many times, sometimes with up to 14 floors. This long history of library construction, often led by great architects," they note, "offers. . . a building of a complexity commensurate with the rich heritage of the spaces that characterize it." Complexity brings challenge and, in this case at least, profound transformation. The architects reconfigured circulation for the library to open and give it light. They introduced a new entrance and courtyard, and, in a pivotal move, switched out staircases, trading in the old main staircase for a shiny aluminum-clad statement. "In architecture, the staircase is an object of choice," the practice observes. "Its space, form and place say a lot about the way it has been designed and thought out." Here A R C H I T E C T U R E + D E S I G N

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