An Urban Ecology | Robert L. Koshgarian

Architecture, Students Week

This is an experiment, to find an additive to the rhythm of urban growth and oppose the common urban design taxidermy of historic-kitsch promenades. A fusion of two development typologies founds a new, contemporary growth type, the ”Co-Urban” ecology.

Broadway, Los Angeles- a theatrical center of great activity, now decayed and decrepit. The city has committed to the cosmetic re-facing of old facades and implanting premium retail; privileging the ground plane alone. However, the solution to the problem of activation requires more height and depth! A modernist approach impedes the solution to this contemporary problem. The space above the boulevard is in programmatic despair and the ground floor is no longer desirable – neither contribute to the proposal of
“Bring(ing) back Broadway”. In reality, “something new” is necessary here, not a flash back.

Courtesy of Robert L. Koshgarian

A living additive is needed to focus on program possibilities in X, Y, and Z directions. The living additive is a proposition beyond remodel or demolition, even beyond juxtaposition. It is the marriage and reproduction of two organized density models in opposing scales, urban and suburban. The product of this fusion is named, “Co-Urban” ecology; this is the additive.”]

Co-Urban ecology is the fusion from simple perpendicularity, the city’s formal stasis, to the fusion necessary to creating a whole, systemic ecology. Co-Urban grows gradated up and out, between and through the building massing, across and over, presenting deep spatial opportunities. In an aggregate massing of living units from single to family, six opaque towers collect urban and suburban density. Each tower is nested by secondary and tertiary volumes with culturally significant programs, places to call home, places to find community, yards. This new Co-Urban ecology thus provides resolution to the conflicted desire of urban dwellers; to be close, and yet, to have your own American home.

Courtesy of Robert L. Koshgarian

Inside Influences: Michael Rotondi (Advisor), Jeff Kipnis (Over Lord), Devyn Weiser (UG Thesis Director), John Enright (UG Director), Stefan Ritter (Volunteered Advice), Greg Akerman (Volunteered Advice)

Outside influences: James Wines (“High Rise of Homes”), Friedrick Kiesler, Peter Cook (Red Tower, Sleektower and Veranda Tower), David Greene (“Hi-res Living Pod”), Archigram, Peter Sloterdijk (“Foam”)