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FRANK O. GEHRY & ASSOCIATES

Indiana Avenue Studios

Venice

Located in the Oakwood ghetto area of Venice, this project is comprised of three individual 1,500 square-foot live-in artists studios on a forty-foot wide lot. Security for the occupants was a prime consideration and California Coastal Commision requirements imposed a total area limitation, a 28-foot height limit and off-street parking for two cars per unit. The project was the beginning of many attempts to create, in new construction, "loft-like" inexpensive working and living environments for atrtists in this area.

Each box-shaped unit is lined up, front to back, within the long narrow site which is enclosed by a high security fence. Two of the three units have direct access from the garages and the third is entered from a walled access walkway. Overscaled building partsss; a stairway, a chimney-like shape and a huge bay window, become abstract sculptures on the building and are intended as both a commentary on Postmodernism and a way of creating humanizing scale elements. To keep cost at a minimum, interior spaces were left as unfinished shells with exposed wood construction for the owners to finish and subdivide according to their individual requirements. The two front buildings are each two levels while the rear building is a single level, located over the garages.

The second levels have large skylights and are double-height to allow for future mezzanine space (high windows are located to relate to these future spaces). The parking garages, with space for six cars, are situated under the reae unit and are also useable as working space.

Construction is conventional wood frame on concrete footings. Exterior materials relate to the existing neighborhood and are different for each of the three "units". Gray-green asphalt shingles, experimental unpainted plywood and pale blue stucco enable the dense volumes to blend into the surrounding Venice neighborhood.