fuksas completes renovation of the beverly center in los angeles with a dynamic wavy façade

studio fuksas has completed the beverly center renovation, the los angeles shopping mall whose façade has been a city landmark ever since its construction in the early 1980s. the mall, which opens on november 1, 2018, has been rethought to improve its aesthetic qualities with moving surfaces replacing the static façade, whose wave-like movement echoes the surrounding urban landscape.

photo © john linden / © archivio fuksas (also main image)

beyond renovating the image of the shopping center, studio fuksas has also created new meeting spaces for the luxury market in california, placed within the three levels of the mall that expand around a large central space. as visitors approach the beverly center, they encounter its iconic façade redesigned with moving surfaces that overlap and become part of the architecture itself while contributing to the new lighting strategy with a vertical series of throbbing LEDs. the wavy effect of the surfaces dematerializes the existing volume by reflecting colors and decomposing them, while, together with the lighting effects, they alter viewers’ perception of the building both at night and during the day.

photo © john linden / © archivio fuksas

three full-height entrance halls invite visitors to roam within the three-story building, which is brightly lit through large openings on the roof that allow natural light to reach all the common and commercial areas, even from the lower stories, through shaded skylights. the sequence of curve voids marks the different floors and recalls the fluidity of the exterior façade, while micro-punched metal panels reflect the interior lighting, giving life to a pleasant promenade inside the building. a panoramic terrace on the mall’s roof strengthens the relationship between inside and out, and welcomes both visitors and inhabitants of the surrounding areas to use it.

photo © john linden / © archivio fuksas