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(W)rapper,  | International Design Awards Winners
(W)rapper,  | International Design Awards Winners
(W)rapper,  | International Design Awards Winners
(W)rapper,  | International Design Awards Winners
(W)rapper,  | International Design Awards Winners
(W)rapper,  | International Design Awards Winners
(W)rapper,  | International Design Awards Winners
(W)rapper,  | International Design Awards Winners
(W)rapper,  | International Design Awards Winners
(W)rapper,  | International Design Awards Winners
(W)rapper,  | International Design Awards Winners

(W)rapper

Lead DesignersEric Owen Moss
Prize(s)Honorable Mention
Project LinkView
Entry Description

The original (W)rapper project was approved by the Los Angeles City Planning Commission and the Los Angeles City Council in 1999. At the time of its original approval the tower was the only high rise proposal in the South Central Los Angeles area, the location for two urban riots in the last fifty years. Today the project continues to be the only tower proposal in that section of the city.

The conceptual strategy for the project is a structural strategy, and that strategy remains in the most recent version. A continuous system of curvilinear ribbons, neither beams, nor columns, wraps the two contiguous boxes – T shaped in plan – allowing a completely open, column-free interior. The ribbons are resolved at the base of the tower as a series of intersecting hyperbolic concrete support walls that geometrically join ribbons on one elevation of the box with ribbons on the opposite side.

The ribbon language was developed in parallel with an exhibition at the Wexner Museum, the Dancing Bleachers in 1998.

Rather than the conventional single floor to floor height, typical of most tower structures, this project offers three alternative floor to floor heights to its tenants, one at 13 feet six inches, one at 16 feet, and one at 24 feet. The 24 foot volume occurs three times, and allows the construction of a mezzanine, should the tenant require such space.

The primary structure for each floor plate is a pair of parallel, concrete girders, each 10 feet from the floor perimeter, running lengthwise through the building. The girders are, in turn, supported by lateral beams that connect to the ribbons, as they pass each floor line.

(W)rapper begins construction in fall 2014.