Rampart Loft 

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Architecture as urban Catalyst in a Vehicle Dominated Concrete Jungle: The question in the Vehicle Dominated City

Los Angeles is a city known for long lines of traffic congestion against a smoggy horizon. Among the world’s densely populated metropolitan cities, Los Angeles has a uniquely underutilized public transit system. The disjointed and cumbersome transit system does not allow people to easily travel across such a large, decentralized city. Instead, most people in L.A. prefer to travel around the city by car - ridesharing or in personal vehicles. Most buildings in L.A., therefore, are experienced through moving vehicle windows. Rampart Loft was designed with this concept in mind.

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Fitting for the heavily trafficked city, Rampart Loft is located at a busy intersection. Instead of fading into the concrete jungle background, this building is dynamic; reaching out from its street corner to draw the eyes and invoke a sense of movement using shape and color. Rather than building separate layers vertically, floor by floor - as seen with most apartment buildings - the Rampart Loft space progresses across the horizontal line, creating a seamless curved form from East to West and around the South vertical wall. The lines of the building blend into a bold floorless work of art rather than a traditional wedding cake-like design (basement is split from upper floors). The curved exterior creates a feeling of continuity as each vehicle approaches and passes by. White and steel grey define the building and serve as a backdrop to emphasize the vibrant vertical pops of the city’s iconic sunset colors: red, orange, yellow. The smooth flow of recognizable colors defines the building against - at the same time as blending it into - the urban cityscape.

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