The proposal for 8844 Sunset Blvd. seeks to adapt and expand the existing building incorporating a new Off-Site Signage that act not only as blank surface for entertainment, advertisement and contemporary art in West Hollywood, but as a theatrical, technological and ecological backdrop for the unfolding of a new kind of public life. Furthering the vision, goals and policies of the Sunset Specific Plan, our project takes advantage of its strategic location, to create an ‘Urban Theater’ that fosters a much-needed public life and pedestrian oriented activity associated with the Iconic Sunset Strip.

Our project seamlessly incorporates digital and static signage within a larger design scheme and social narrative. As a result, the signage is not only seamlessly and strategically integrated with the architecture, but it pushes it to a new horizon, one wherein the visual aesthetics of digital media and the social dynamics of public life are constantly and vigorously intertwined. Therefore, the iconicity of the project is not only predicated on its capacity to produce new images in the Sunset strip; be them those of a new series of Instagram selfies, or a new TV series, a blockbuster movie ad or car commercial, but the possibility that these images, so intimately germane to the public imagination of Los Angeles and West Hollywood in particular, may take place within a new public realm that did not and could not exist before, one uniquely created by this project.  The surrounding Green-Media-wall is the main artifice of the project. It incorporates the most important elements of the proposal, signaling unequivocally that at the intersection of art, media, technology, architecture, nature and public life can exist a socially engaged, aesthetically inspiring and visually astounding space which is not a result of a science fiction film like Blade Runner, but rather, of a forward looking and progressive agenda pioneered by City of West Hollywood and reified by projects like this one.

Team:
Marcelo Spina
Georgina Huljich
Danial Mahfoud
Adin Rimland
Siyao Zheng

Partners:
The Rich Picture
POP! Outdoor Media