MODAA II | SPF:architects

Set exactly on the transition line between Culver City’s easternmost development, the Helms district, and its less developed Eastern corridor, the MODAA Loft building captures the energy and transition of the city along Washington Boulevard, acting as a visual gateway to the city’s burgeoning Art District to the East.

MODAA’s ground floor houses the architect’s studio, a global modelling agency, and a 2,200-square-foot art gallery that explores the relationship between design art and architecture. The second floor houses seven live/work lofts featuring 16-foot ceilings, individual mezzanines, and six-foot-high glass sliding doors on the southern wall; these units are currently used as a co-working space/incubator.

On the exterior, the building design captures the flavor of the city’s 1920’s art deco origin without conforming to the historic style. Its façade, designated by the City’s Cultural Affairs Commission, “Architecture as Art,” explores the variation, movement, velocity and tempo of the city on all scales, using material and texture in variations that stimulate and delight the imagination. A slowly changing series of LED colors emanate from the façade’s southwest corner at night, mesmerizing passersby from the outside.

Functionally, the award-winning façade serves as a rain screen, insulation to the building surface from the sun, and as an acoustic diffuser for the city’s main artery.