TCA Architects

JIA APARTMENTS

TCA Architect - May 29, 2020

Meaning “home,” JIA is an urban six story mixed-use project with 280 apartment units and 20,000 square feet of ground level retail on the North-West corner of Broadway and Cesar Chavez. The location of the project is at the main entry into Los Angeles’ Chinatown, adjacent to the Twin Dragons Tower Gateway. The project is designed in order to respect and respond to the Twin Dragons Tower Gateway with a large public courtyard on the street corner for residents and the local community. The façade along Broadway has neighborhood serving retail along the entire ground level with articulated units above to create smaller scale elements along the street edge. The urban nature of the project reflects the future of residential and mixed use design in the Los Angeles area, with the close integration of public and private uses. The contemporary architectural reflects a forward thinking approach to the revitalization of Chinatown and elements of color with strong forms were used to make a statement at the gateway to Chinatown.

BRIO

TCA Architect - May 20, 2020

Brio is the ultimate in luxury resort-style living in the city of Glendale. Apartment home interiors include wood plank-style flooring, Caesarstone countertops, a stainless steel appliances, oversized tubs, walk-in closets, and full-size stacked washers and dryers. The property has surround-sound ambient music throughout and offers an impressive amenity package, featuring a resident’s club, resort-style pool and spa, Zen garden courtyard with cabanas, rooftop decks as well as a fitness center and digital game. The 2.55-acre development site is situated between four of Los Angeles County’s largest employment centers, including downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, Pasadena and Burbank. Brio is a five-story, podium-style building with a total of 186 units and a tri-level partially subterranean parking structure. The development also features 8,282 square feet of retail space along the heavily trafficked Colorado Street.

HIKARI

TCA Architect - May 01, 2020

Japanese for “light,” Hikari embodies the resurgence of Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo district. Once a dilapidated parking lot, the urban infill site compliments the growing neighborhood alive with students, new residents and a nightlife that was once unimaginable. The unusual pie-shaped site sits at a key juncture; an entryway accessing Little Tokyo and the resurging downtown area. Over 20 different floor plans were designed to fit this uncommon geometry and maximize city skyline views. The street orientations responded to the different nature of their community roles. Second Street is pedestrian-oriented and has a finer grain detail that terminates at the corner, an arrival point to this district.

CANVAS LA

TCA Architect - Apr 29, 2020

Canvas LA was designed to create a signature urban living environment that would attract a hip, young urban professional market. The dilapidated site, once a parking lot, had freeway frontage with wide-open views of the downtown Los Angeles skyline creating differing adjacencies on all sides. The design of each façade reflected its corresponding edge. Stacked townhomes on the freeway side create a deliberate, repetitive module overlaid with a series of random horizontal metal awnings referencing the movement of the freeway and take full advantage of the downtown LA view. The southern façade is a white, neutral building with moveable glass panels on private balconies which provides a dynamic architectural feature for the building and allows residents a fun custom lighting feature. Residents enjoy numerous vibrant indoor and outdoor spaces with views of the downtown skyline, giving a visible connection to this dynamic urban setting. The courtyards and pool area create a variety of social opportunities and acts as an outdoor extension of the resident’s living and entertaining space.

7950 WEST SUNSET

TCA Architect - Apr 25, 2020

Located next to the Hollywood Screen Actors Guild, 7950 West Sunset aims to attract residents looking for a glamorous upscale Hollywood lifestyle without the cost and responsibility of owning and maintaining a single family residence. The units are well-appointed and amenity spaces include: a rooftop infinity edge pool modeled after older Hollywood hotels like the Roosevelt, an entertainment lounge, billiards room, fitness studio and 4 separate outdoor sky terraces offering views of the Hollywood hills, Sunset Strip and a distant downtown Los Angeles. The design team was inspired by the vibrancy and history of the Hollywood area and the brick siding is a nod to the former brick auto repair buildings that previously occupied the site. 7950 West Sunset revitalized the area by demolishing the severely dilapidated auto buildings (greatly reducing neighborhood crime) and providing much needed housing to support local businesses. The development achieved total community support from two cities and achieved successful financing for an extraordinary 65 year ground lease.

SHADE AT DESERT RIDGE

TCA Architect - Apr 20, 2020

This project was conceptualized as a “horizontal mixed-use” project in Phoenix, Arizona. The community was visualized as a contemporary enclave of mostly 3-story walk-up flats and townhomes, plus one 4-story elevator building. The master plan sought to achieve a very high level of walkability throughout the community and was developed around a circulation spine of walkable streets, with a minimum of garage doors facing the semi-public automobile access routes. The entire 1/4-mile long site is traversed by an enhanced pedestrian walk path that gathers pedestrian flow throughout the site and delivers it, by way of the central recreation area, to the adjacent commercial center which proffers a desirable blend of neighborhood-serving retail uses.

MADISON AT TOWN CENTER

TCA Architect - Mar 25, 2020

Located across the street from an existing hotel and shops, Madison Town Center provides a completed retail street experience. Commons Park, a refreshing neighborhood gathering place, anchors the bend in Town Center Drive and creates a focal point for new live-work units. The entry ‘Piazza’, an outdoor room enhanced with cobblestones, sidewalks and street trees welcome both resident and guest alike with an intimate, urban quality. Consideration of the scale and context of the existing fabric drove the distribution of the 341 luxury apartments and 9,000 square feet of sidewalk oriented shops. Four story buildings are located adjacent to existing commercial structures of similar scale while three story buildings are used opposite established residential structures. Parking is gathered to the core of the site in two above grade, four story parking structures, screened from view by residential and retail buildings.

800 Western

tcaeditor - Oct 09, 2017

This project is designed as a modern abstraction of Art Deco and Streamline Moderne in response to the existing historical Art Deco building on-site. It is a contrast between today and the modern times of the 1920s. The existing building is regular in shape, formulaic in its façade rhythm of pilasters and decorative cornice. The new retail building façade meanders from floor to floor and the shopfront glazing layout varies in width and transparency in relationship. This design characteristic is drawn across to the building where retail uses continue the street wall. The building design reflects today’s notion of evoking motion with subtle reference to the past automobile culture. Reinforcing this theme is the assortment of material and transparency with the enhanced panels shift in various directions. The dynamic façade of the retail continues to the most prominent corner on the site by engaging the tower to the highest reaches of the building that is visibly celebrated with views of Los Angeles.

2222 FIGUEROA

tcaeditor - Mar 02, 2017

Located between Downtown Los Angeles and the USC campus, the 2.3-acre site is flanked by the Expo Line to the east and the MyFigueroa Streetscape Improvement project to the west. The property is bounded by Figueroa, Flower, 22nd and 23rd Streets and is a collection of rental and for-sale housing above 20,000 square feet of pedestrian-oriented commercial space facing Figueroa and the adjacent light rail station. The project includes 1,063 units, 645 condominiums, and 5% low income housing. Amenities include pool, bicycle accommodations, a beach volleyball court and multiple fitness centers.

MERCURY

TCA Architect - Nov 15, 2016

Constructed in 1963, the former headquarters of the Getty Oil Company was originally designed by renowned architect Claud Beelman and is considered one of the city’s finest expressions of mid-century modern architecture. In 2007, TCA converted Mercury from office space into 238 condominiums with 10 distinctive floor plans ranging from 740 to 1,500 square feet. The major design challenge was the unusual dimension of the units (18’ wide by 52’ deep). The solution was to place the bathrooms and walk-in closets) to the deepest portion of the unit and reserve the natural light for the open common areas. In the deepest units, the entry door was embedded nearly midway into the dwelling, which helped mitigate the perceived depth of the space. The rooftop was transformed into an urban oasis with the addition of a pool, indoor-outdoor fitness facility, and expansive lawn for residents to enjoy 360 degree views of Los Angeles. Across the street, the Metro Red Line subway station connects to Pasadena, Long Beach, Hollywood, Universal City, and many downtown destinations including Staples Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall and world-class restaurants.