Contract Magazine - October 2019 - 71

Location Los Angeles

Founded 1996

The multidisciplinary, Los Angeles-based firm Standard Architecture has a
consistent goal when they take on a new project-to discover a brand or company's
culture and identity, and to communicate that identity through all aspects of the
project. Aware that architecture has the power to communicate a message, a
feeling, or a way of living, principals Jeffrey Allsbrook (who founded the firm in
1996) and Silvia Kuhle (who joined in 2006) make it a priority to ensure that the
people who occupy the spaces they design are able to sense this.
"Silvia and I both started our careers in Europe, where we met, and we came to
Los Angeles in the mid-'90s," says Allsbrook. "Our experience gives us distinct
perspectives on building and site. It's a view that combines an elemental approach
to architecture and an open relationship toward the environment. As our practice
evolves, this perspective increasingly defines our work. Our projects start with a
dialogue about program and purpose, and progress toward their own identity."
With Standard Architecture's large focus on retail and cultural projects,

Typologies

embodying the brand within a shop, gallery, or cultural space is critical.
The firm designs from the inside-out, considering the spatial experience first,
as well as the set of conditions and constraints. Their interior projects are guided
by views, light, proportion, orientation, and materiality, tying them to their
environments and surroundings-especially in Los Angeles, where interior
and exteriors can co-exist so seamlessly.
The firm recently completed Intelligentsia Hollywood-a high-end coffee
house that takes a myriad of cues from its tantalizing surroundings. Hollywood
Boulevard, the wood-paneled of nearby local institution Musso & Frank Grill, and
the French flower-painter Paul Delongpre all played an influenced on the firm's
approach to the cafe interiors. The design team flipped through old postcards and
photos of the fields of flowers on Delongpre's Hollywood estate, and was inspired
to apply colored mosaic tiles, reminiscent of poppy fields, to the vaulted ceilings.
The dark wood-paneled walls, fluted mirrors, brass accents, and ceiling-mounted
light bulbs add to Intelligentsia's true Hollywood flare.
For another project, the Hollywood showroom of fashion brand Helmut
Lang on Melrose Avenue, the firm took a completely different approach. The space
reflects the grayscale minimalism and gallery-like feel of Helmut Lang's early
California stores, but with an updated freshness. By integrating contemporary art
pieces and a contrast of raw and refined materials, such as smooth troweled-plaster
walls, blackened timber, and concrete, the space remains true to the brand while
feeling reinvigorated and refreshed. The modernist architecture of surrounding
Los Angeles and Palm Springs is referenced through an outdoor courtyard garden
in the rear of the shop, and cutouts in the roof, which allow natural light to flow
throughout the entire space.

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Contract Magazine - October 2019

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