Cityscape: Global BIG architecture group champions sustainability in California

Google s Bay View campus in Silicon Valley Photo courtesy of BIG Hedonistic sustainability is an appealing rebrand of sustainable design It says that sustainability is not just unsightly banks of solar panels It means that sustainable elements and essential infrastructure can solve practical problems while bringing visible and experiential pleasure The term was coined by architect Bjarke Ingels Danish founder of Bjarke Ingels Group BIG a global firm with more than employees and offices in Barcelona Oslo Copenhagen London New York Shanghai Zurich and Los Angeles where BIG partner Leon Rost opened an outpost with employees two years ago Rost s upcoming lecture Thursday at Casa Del Prado in Balboa Park will cover the hedonistic expected for designs related to fire containment flood control and solar power as well as college campuses corporate buildings urban neighborhoods and other places where vibrant human-friendly design should be an essential ingredient In San Diego BIG s work includes a notable project at UC San Diego about which Rost would not divulge details although he already has certain strong ideas In BIG proposed a -foot spiraling hourglass-shaped tower as part of the Seaport San Diego redevelopment but it was absent from subsequent proposals by other architects Multiple of BIG s designs are on or near the West Coast They include a new Athletics ballpark the unit has moved from Oakland to Las Vegas Google s Bay View campus in Silicon Valley and a new sciences building at Claremont McKenna College Google s -million-square-foot Bay View campus opened in epitomizes hedonistic sustainability Buildings have sculptural dragonscale roofs of solar panels arrayed to define the curved lines of those gigantic dragonscales The panels produce seven megawatts of power enough to meet of the campus s vitality demands Obviously the dragonscale panels were an essential feature Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has revealed To me it s kind of a comment just showing that building solar roofs can be aesthetically incredible In New York in the aftermath of s Superstorm Sandy BIG brought its hedonistic sensibilities to bear on the issue of flood control after it won the Rebuild by Design competition for a system of restrictions and flip-up floodgates to prevent future flooding of Manhattan Rebuild by Design put designers in the driver s seat to come up with ideas as to how to protect Manhattan from the next superstorm Rost explained We saw it as an opportunity not just to build a wall around Manhattan which would be a huge undertaking but also to transform the East River s shoreline BIG s Dryline the moniker is a spinoff of Manhattan s elevated High Line park which transformed an abandoned railway into a popular residents venue incorporates greenspace pedestrian and bicycle paths and landscaped areas to create fabulous locations for Manhattanites and visitors Rost grew up in Japan and the San Francisco Bay Area earned his architecture degree at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and began his career in Europe Japan and New York where he joined BIG in Given his California roots he felt compelled to bring his and BIG s international experience to bear on a multitude of challenges the state and its cities will face in the years ahead I believe in the state he informed me I ve learned a lot from working abroad and I feel I have something to offer to be able to leverage the great design thinking that is emerging around the world and adapt it to California sensibilities While Rost would not detail BIG s UCSD project he is thinking about how the campus can become a more inviting place to live work and visit as it grows increasingly tall dense and city-like and to connect the campus with the surrounding population I think maybe what the campus demands is more of an urban heart he commented It has grown tremendously and is one of the biggest in the world now the size of downtown San Diego the campus encompasses acres while San Diego s center has with open spaces as noteworthy as Balboa Park s It s notoriously arduous to park and penetrate campus and that s where the opportunities are for the rise of campus Essential to meeting parking and transportation challenges that make access challenging at UCSD and in other urban settings Rost explained is embracing various forms of micro transportation such as e-bikes and scooters There have been outcries regarding safety and sidewalk clutter but Rost announced The scooters aren t the difficulty cities just haven t adapted yet The Robert Day Sciences Center at Claremont McKenna College Photo courtesy of BIG Rost cites BIG s Robert Day Sciences Center at Claremont McKenna College opening in September as the kind of urban heart needed at UCSD It combines three different sciences into one building and we designed it to create an indoor plaza at the intersection of two pedestrian corridors a node at the heart of the building that will be a masses space not just for students but for people in the society with dining options and an informal amphitheatre In Los Angeles following the devastating Palisades and Altadena fires early this year BIG is leading the Breakline initiative to prevent future flaming disasters with new infrastructure that includes attractive population amenities Part of it is an idea to create a physical firebreak along the edges of cities Rost noted at wildlife interface zones that could become incredible linear parks connecting boundary neighborhoods with mountain biking farming hiking things that people love to do but in a less flammable landscape Still in a formative stage of discussion among design experts populace representatives and locality stakeholders the Breakline might seem like an idealistic fever dream that will have a tough time gaining help and funding But Rost is optimistic that a compelling vision with hedonistic appeal can succeed In California Rost declared the championing of sustainability is something I haven t seen anywhere else San Diego Los Angeles the San Francisco Bay Area and other West Coast locales present opportunities for architects to demonstrate that new infrastructure doesn t have to be a sacrifice or sandbag Roar believes that if done right it can play a big part in making cities more livable full of inviting places Dirk Sutro has written extensively about architecture and design in Southern California and is the author of architectural guidebooks to San Diego and UC San Diego His column appears monthly in Times of San Diego and he also writes about houses for San Diego Magazine