Leong Leong has been chosen over four others to masterplan and design the Los Angeles LGBT Center's new mixed-use site in Hollywood, California. The Los Angeles-based practice will design a new 183,700-square-foot building that, together with the Center's existing facility across the street, will form a block-wide campus that will include a unique mix of 140 affordable housing units, 100 beds for homeless youth, a new senior center and a center for homeless youth, as well as a new administrative headquarters and cultural arts center.
The new site, located off McCadden Place and Santa Monica Boulevard, will connects its various programs with a porous, pedestrian-centric public plaza and a series of courtyards.
“The design concept is to create a mosaic of unique spaces and programs that - together with The Village at Ed Gould Plaza (the neighboring facility) - will form a cohesive campus along McCadden Place. We hope the project will become an urban catalyst for the neighborhood, connecting residents, clients, staff, and neighbors alike,” says Chris Leong, partner at Leong Leong.
The campus is expected to open in 2019, on the Center's 50th anniversary.
The Center, known for providing more services to the LGBT community than any other organization in the world, selected Leong Leong with the help of Thomas Safran & Associates - a leading developer of affordable housing. The final design will be the result of a collaboration between Leong Leong (Design Architect), Killefer Flammang Architects (Executive Architect), and Pamela Burton Associates (Landscape Architect).
