“Sky Trees” will be the healthiest place you can live in downtown Los Angeles
Drawing inspiration from nature's Californian Redwoods, one of the "oldest and tallest" trees in the world, our vision is to make the tower the healthiest place you can live in downtown LA. The project features an expressive canopy that incorporates a “breathing green wall” designed to improve the city’s air quality and introduce a unique landscaping feature to the downtown streetscape. It is our desire through a nature-inspired approach to architecture, to transform an old existing warehouse district into a healthy and organic neighbourhood in LA.
With tall buildings, modern technology allows people the ambition to go higher and higher, but as you go vertical, issues can arise with the engagement to the pedestrian realm. The tall scale works in the context of the city but for a human scale, sometimes it can seem too tall.
We want to humanise tall buildings, to celebrate the pedestrian activities and consider how people experience it. We want our tall building designs to be more engaging to the public to contribute to the community by activating and creating a connection with the neighbourhood.
A reference to Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe’s “flying skirt” moment
An undulating timber canopy references the famous Marilyn Monroe “flying skirt” moment; the reference to Hollywood resonating with LA’s celebrated street culture. The nature inspired building and unique streetscape character aims to reduce the dependence on cars, building on LA’s vision to promote a walkable city.
The podium of the tower is eye-catching, designed with a strong consideration of human-scale, pedestrian & retail activity and how people experience it. In doing so, Sky Trees encourages public activation, creating yet another ‘Instagram moment’ for Downtown Los Angeles.
