The Chiat Day Building, in Venice Beach California was designed by Frank Gehry, for clients, the Chiat Day Advertising company. The L-Shaped three storey office building sits ontp of three levels of underground parking, which is entered through the large binoculars. The main materials used for the building were precast concrete, steel, stucco and copper sheet metal.
The initial proposal by Gehry was a development of nine three storey buildingsm consisting of shops and offices at ground level, and apartment and artists studios on the upper levels. These earlier proposals differed from the eventual Chiat Day building – in program and materials, as well as site strategy.
The Main Street facade is made up of three distinctive elements.The most distinctive being the centrally placed binoculars, which were created in collaboration with artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen. On one side of the binoculars is a curved wall building, evoking 'maritime imagery', and on the other side, are a 'forestlike proliferation' of branching columns, clad in copper.
Due to height restrictions, and the overall configuration of the site, the building extends to the property line on all sides. The location's height limit was 30 feet, so the floor to floor height was limited to ten feet - requiring flat concrete framing and careful planning between services and trades.
Reference:
Frank Gehry: The Complete Works, Francesco Dal Co, Kurt W. Forster, Electa Architecture pp 318-321
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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6c/052607-006-Chiat-Day.jpg/250px-052607-006-Chiat-Day.jpg
http://www.treehugger.com/chiat-day.jpg
