Frank Gehry Discusses the Design of His Newest Residential Building

Frank Gehry once described one of his most well recognized projects, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, as a “living room for the city.” If the home base for the L.A. Phil and the Los Angeles Master Chorale is the parlor, then The Grand by Gehry, Gehry’s recently unveiled new residential building, is the rest of the house.

Developed in collaboration with Related Companies, the 45-story residential building includes 436 residences and 22,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor amenities including an attended lobby, outdoor pool and terrace, fitness center, yoga studio, coworking spaces, dog play spaces, and an expansive entertaining floor with a bar and theater.

“I’m really pleased with it,” Gehry tells AD, adding, “It was hard work.” When designing the complex, it was important to him that the tower fit in with the Disney hall and other nearby cultural institutions like the Museum of Contemporary Art, The Broad, and the Music Center. Luckily, having already made a mark on Grand Avenue, Gehry had a template to work with.

“When I designed Disney Hall, I surrounded the outer box of the hall with the smaller programmatic elements like the lobbies, the box office, and the stairs, in order to make it friendlier to pedestrians on Grand Ave.,” he explains. “In designing The Grand, we used this same principle, gradually building up the scale by surrounding the towers with the smaller-scale elements like the shops and restaurants.”

The residential units—which include studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments—were designed by Ingrao Inc. and are seeped in warm wood tones, like oak-style cabinetry in the kitchen, and elegant natural finishes, such as quartz backsplashes and silver travertine countertops. The apartments also feature floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the SoCal city and Juliet balconies. “We wanted to infuse our designs with a California aesthetic sensibility,” Tony Ingrao, principle of Ingrao Inc. and AD100 designer, said in a statement.

David Rockwell and the Rockwell Group designed the building’s public spaces, explaining he worked closely with Gehry to find both places for contrast and cohesion between the building’s design and those of the interior. “To contrast the bold architectural masses, we created a light and airy palette,” he tells AD. “Warm and natural materials made the grand spaces feel more intimate and brought the scale down to a residential level.” Some materiality motifs from the units return, like travertine, though, in general, the palette of the common spaces is a little richer, making use of teak and walnut and jewel-toned accents.

Studios in the building start at $2,750, one-bedrooms at $3,875, two-bedrooms at $5,600, and three-bedrooms at $9,500. An additional 89 units will be available at subsidized, below-market rates for low-income tenants. Located within The Grand LA, a mixed-use development, the complex also features stores, restaurants, and a luxury hotel.

“I am superstitious, so I don’t hope for projects,” Gehry says. It was never in mind that he would design another building near the Disney Concert Hall, but he’d been thinking about the area for a long time when Related approached him. “This site was the missing link in the cultural district.”

Via Architectural Digest