SILVERLAKE CONSERVATORY

2016
Los Angeles, CA
Photography: Laure Joliet

The new home of this Silver Lake institution is a vibrant haven of spaces for the community of children and musicians, enclosed within the outer shell of a classic Hollywood warehouse. Free-standing structures form a village-scale collection of music studios and teaching spaces underneath skylights and the newly-exposed bowstring truss ceiling, creating a light-filled temple to music. A street-friendly lobby and shop connect to the bustle of Hollywood Blvd., alongside the interior urbanism of student choirs rubbing shoulders with visitors attending public concert performances and children en route to private violin lessons. Openings on multiple sides foster interactions, and the free-standing pods' playful roof-line invokes the form of the row-house, a nod to a successful historic model for defining private spaces within a collective unit of volume.