CASE STUDY

WINDWARD HETEROTOPIA

VENICE BEACH | LOS ANGELES, CA

Venice, California has long been undergoing continual and rapid transition. Civil rights and historic preservation advocates share space with tourists, transients, and the tech industry. Exclusionary zoning codes restrict additional dwelling units even in the face of ever increasing demand and rising housing prices. Spaces for public expression and small community enterprise are lacking. Amidst these competing forces, is there a normative state for architecture, that is, the way in which things ought to be, and, who stands to benefit? These questions are explored in an intervention for the iconic site at the heart of Venice Beach.

Windward at Ocean Front Walk is a richly layered site with a history spanning from precolonial ceremonial spaces to marshes used for duck hunting during the rancho period, then from foreclosures and land subdivision to Abbot Kinney’s Venice of America. In the early 1900s, construction of a entertainment and hospitality oriented pier was begun before a winter storm destroyed it in 1905, only to then be rebuilt. Later in 1921, a year after Abbot Kinney died of lung cancer, the pier was destroyed by fire and rebuilt for a second time. Bootleg alcohol was smuggled and consumed here during prohibition. In 1946, after the pier's lease expired, it was ordered closed and dismantled. However, Venice nurtured a bohemian culture and a mosaic of public expressions, including the summer of love in the 60s.

These layers of meaning locate the site into a spatial type that is ill-defined: on one hand the space is a physical location with concrete characteristics and a flow of individuals that contribute to social interactions, and on the other hand Venice is many abstractions and identities; for some a fantastical space, dreamlike, outside of the hegemonic order, yet embodied in a physical location. A heterotopia in the sense that Michel Foucault used when speaking of other spaces.

The concept driving the design of this project is a celebration of the heterotopia, that is, the carnivalesque atmosphere of an amusement park pier pulled from a time and space past and folded back into itself. Tectonically, the expression is that of a structure of light gently perched on the site, respecting the highly granular micro diversity and adding a literal framework within which new uses can share space and time with those that are existing.

1920s Site Image_frame-2 (Dario Rodman-Alvarez's conflicted copy 2022-03-01).png

Historical Documentation of Venice Beach

Over the course of the last 200 million years, tectonic friction between the Pacific and North American plates slowly compressed continental crust upwards, giving rise to the Santa Monica Mountains and the ravines at its foothills and shores.

As recently as 13,000 years ago, people settled the area due to a temperate climate, widespread flora, and ample water supply. Over 1,000 Tongva and Chumash archeological sites have been found in the coastal areas of Los Angeles, many of a sacred nature.

The Gabrielino Indians at the Time of the Portola Expedition: 1769-70 (1962)

Prehistoric archeological sites in the Ballona

Source: Los Angeles Public Library Map Collection

Source: Homburg, Jeffrey & Douglass, John & Reddy, Seetha. (2014)

Map of tribe locations which were found by the expedition by Governor Gaspar Portola as he journeyed through Southern California in 1969. (Chris Millington, M.A., RPA, Trevor Gittelhough, M.A. (2019))

Archeological site locations of Gabrielinos/Tongva people around the Ballona creek. Every LAN indicator represents a site that has been discovered (Source: Homburg, Jeffrey & Douglass, John & Reddy, Seetha. (2014))

Spanish Colonial Ranchos

By the late 1700s, Tongva and Chumash lands were colonized and distributed to Spanish settlers for use as ranchos. Land use of some rancherías and pueblos persisted through the conflicts leading to the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. Since the late 1800s, ranch tracts have been subdivided and sold in parcels of land, developed, and further subdivided into lots for sale to mostly migrant settlers of a burgeoning California.

Map of the Rancho La Ballona

The map represents the Rancho Ballona which was own by the brothers Agustín Machado, Ygnacio Machado, father, and son, Felipe and Tomas Talamantes. A property of about 14,000-acres, the rancho’s property’s name is unknown, there is a school of thought that it refers to the origin of the Talamantes which were from Bayona, Spain, another is that it is a misspelled of Ballena. This is in reference to the edge of rancho the Ballona where the creek empties one could watch the migration of whales. (Cerra, Julie (2014))

Source: SR_Map_0012.01, Solano-Reeve Collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Venice Beach 1970’s

Since the early 20th century, Venice has gone through multiple transitions from fantasyland to gang territory, to its current iteration as Silicon Beach. These layers give complexity to the meaning of the space that is Venice. On one hand, Venice is a physical location made of tangible objects and the constantly changing set of individuals that contribute to social interactions.

1. Saint Mark's Hotel on Windward Avenue

2. View of Windward Avenue in Venice Beach

3. Passengers riding a miniature railroad on Windward Avenue

4. Vehicles Driving on Windward Ave

6. St. Mark's Hotel

5. Arial of Windward Ave

7. On the Sand

8. Daily Crowds in front of the Bath House

Source: California Historical Society: TICOR/Pierce
Source: Digital Public Library of America
Source: UtCon Collection
- 8. Source: Royalty-Free Image

Present Day Venice Beach

1. Wise Man

2. King Solomon

3. Vendor

4. Harry Perry

5. Skater and Viewers

6. Grind Rail

7. Skateboard Balancing

8. Skating

9. Ring Workout

10. Balancing

11. Jumping

12. Gymnastics on the beach

13. Street Performers

14. Break Dance

15. Group Performance

16. Duo Performer

- 16. Source: Royalty Free Images

Project Proposal

The concept driving the design of this project is a celebration of the heterotopia, that is, the carnivalesque setting of an amusement park on a pier pulled from a previous time and space, imposed once again onto itself. Tectonically, the expression of the project is a light frame structure gently perched onto the site, respecting the existing highly textured micro diversity and adding a layer of literal framework within which new uses and experiences share space and time with those of the present and past.

Concept