Eric Owen Moss Architects

Cactus Tower

Cactus Tower
© Tom Bonner
Cactus Tower
© Tom Bonner

CACTUS TOWER

Eric Owen Moss Architects

ARCHITECTS
Eric Owen Moss Architects

LOCATION
Los Angeles, California, USA

PHOTOGRAPHS
 Tom Bonner

Text description provided by architect.

The existing 30,000 sqf building was originally used for light manufacturing, constructed in the 1940's, has walls of poured concrete, and a roof structure that is a sequence of wood bow string trusses.

A large steel frame, enclosed with corrugated metal, 50 feet high, is located just outside the warehouse, where a industrial press was once housed.

Cactus Tower
© Tom Bonner
Cactus Tower
© Tom Bonner

The now vacant tower was stripped revealing a ramshackle steel support structure, and a supporting concrete block wall.

With the intention to reuse the existing structure, Eric Owen Moss Architects reinterpreted the space to create an outdoor meeting and gathering area.

More photographs and drawings of the Cactus Tower following the break. A new “green structure” is installed mid-way up the tower, providing a canopy/pavilion that defines a space for outdoor work and relaxation. This new structure is composed of 28 steel pots, each holding sufficient earth for a single, Mexican Fence Post Cactus (Lemaireocereus Marginatus).

Cactus Tower
© Tom Bonner
Cactus Tower
© Tom Bonner

The pots are positioned in six parallel lines of pots, running east-west. Each pot-line is a linear sequence of five cacti, and a new structural truss spanning from one edge of the original steel structure to the other.

The pots are compression struts, five per truss, serving as the vertical chords of the five new trusses that compose the garden. The top chord of each new truss is an 8 inch steel “T”, the bottom chord is a steel cable.

Cactus Tower
© Tom Bonner
Cactus Tower
© Tom Bonner

Each pot is slotted from below, and the depth of each slotted pot varies as a function of the position of each pot in the truss sequence. The slots follow the line of the bottom chord/cable from one end of the structure to the other.

Perimeter pots have the deepest slots; centrally positioned pots, the least. Irrigation lines and lights, unseen from below, are located on the top chord “T’s”. A ladder leading to the cacti is provided for maintenance. In the center of the Cactus Tower, two pots are omitted from the sequence to allow for the penetration of the afternoon sun to the meeting area floor.

Cactus Tower
© Tom Bonner
Cactus Tower
© Tom Bonner

As a consequence of its height, the Cactus Tower is seen from long distance, a symbol of drought tolerant greenery on the West Los Angeles skyline. The Cactus Tower is the result of combining an environmental advocacy position, an outdoor space, and a new truss typology.

The Cactus Tower will serve as a logo and a conceptual model for the sort of production work to be delivered by Foundation Content.

A large new, multi-purpose production studio, constructed of metal studs and drywall, tightly wrapped with acoustic fabric is designed and constructed within the 30,000 square foot shell.

Cactus Tower
© Tom Bonner
Cactus Tower
© Tom Bonner

The production facility is surrounded by a variety of open and closed conference facilities, private offices, post-production venues, and eating and relaxation accommodations.

Three glass roll up doors are installed on the perimeter walls of the existing concrete shell, opening to the Cactus Tower just outside.


Cactus Tower
section
Cactus Tower
elevation


Cactus Tower
plan
Cactus Tower
plan

Eric Owen Moss Architects
T +1 310 8391199 F +1 310 8397922
Eric Owen Moss Architects
8557 Higuera St, Culver City, CA 90232, United States