In a culmination of its international Call for Ideas launched earlier this summer, railLA announced the July 29 opening of a curated exhibit entitled LA Beyond Cars. Participants to the Call for Ideas submitted conceptual designs, art, studies, inventions, city plans, videos and other creative solutions revolving around the topic of high-speed rail, its integration into the design of cities and visions of a future more sustainable, pedestrian-friendly, transit-oriented and less reliant on automobiles. Over 100 works were received, including invited submissions from renowned architects MVRDV, Eric Owen Moss, Topotek1, and Pritzker Prize laureates Thom Mayne, Sir Norman Foster, and Zaha Hadid. The 15,000 s.f. exhibit space will display drawings, models, videos, animations, a rail-inspired installation by sculptor Stephen Glassman and will h
ost interactive station design workshops by artist and planner, James Rojas.
The exhibit will kick-off with an opening event 6-10pm on Thursday July 29 and run through August 28 from 11:00am-7:00pm in the “Jewel Box” at the base of the City National Bank Plaza towers, 525 South Flower Street, in Downtown Los Angeles.
While the ideas to be exhibited will be drawn from participants as far afield as the Netherlands, China, Korea, Germany, Great Britain and Macedonia, the focus of many of the works are local, specifically addressing the development of Los Angeles Union Station and the neighborhood surrounding it. The Transit District area between Union Station and the Los Angeles River are addressed by one such scheme from the Piggy Backyard, a volunteer collaboration of local desig
n and architecture firms Chee Salette Architecture Office, Mia Lehrer + Associates, Michael Maltzan Architecture, and Perkins+Will. Also being represented will be work by college students, engineers, artists, industrial designers, entrepreneurs, and children, whose musings range from practical improvements to train and track design, to critical and optimistic visions on the future Los Angeles.
Four prizes will be awarded by the railLA executive committee at the event’s conclusion, in addition to a prize awarded by the general public through an online poll. Submissions may be viewed online at http://railLA.org/vision/ideas.
About railLA
railLA (www.railLA.org) is a joint not-for-profit collaboration between the Los Angeles Chapters of the American Institute of Architects (AIA/LA) and the American Planning Association (APA-LA) with the specific purpose of increasing public awareness of the benefits inherent in integrating high-speed rail into our cities, most notably, at first, in Los Angeles. Events such as LA Beyond Cars are intended to generate enthusiasm about the California High-Speed Rail Project and encourage a paradigm shift toward the use of transit.
Since its inception, railLA has quickly become a growing partnership of architects, city and regional planners, and engineers working with business and community leaders as one voice to guarantee that the promise of high-speed rail becomes a reality.
For more information on railLA and its summer 2010 programs, please visit www.railLA.org
