Arthur Erickson Architects Office
Los Angeles , California, USA
Designed 1981, with Francisco Kripacz
For the LA office, Arthur and Francisco renovated a former shop on the fashionable Robertson Boulevard. The street facade was stuccoed except for a
horizontal band of glass block, and they faced the vertically raked stucco with panels of caste glass channels, which modified and brought a “crisp
discipline” to the rough stucco. In a niche next to the adjacent building a clump of bamboo was planted. At the back of a wide niche at the other side was a
tall iron gate to the courtyard which the offices opened onto. The courtyard was paved with an Italian grey tile a foot square, and stepped up in wide terraces
to the landing of the reception area. The second storey was clad in scarlet back-painted glass with a large round circle left clear for the business office and
meeting room behind. The secretary was on the second level and Arthur and Francisco’s offices both opened to a roof terrace over the drafting room, shaded by
the overhanging branches of a large podocarpus tree from the court below.