Top Contest Award to L. A. Design Firm Raises Questions

Two Southern California firms have swept top honors for architectural design in the coveted annual awards program of Progressive Architecture magazine, winning out over nearly 700 submissions from across the country.

But the award to one of the firms, Robert Mangurian/STUDIO WORKS of Venice, is clouded by the possibility that its cited project may not be built this year, a criterion for the award, and may have been submitted in violation of the competition’s rules.

The situation prompted the magazine to comment that it will reconsider the award as well as reexamine the administration of the program. In its 33rd year, the awards program is considered one of the more prestigious in architecture.

The rules for eligibility state that “architectural design entries may include only buildings and complexes, new or remodeled, scheduled to be in any phase of construction in 1986.”

‘Hot Off Drawing Boards’

Underscoring its position, the magazine, in a preface to the announcement of the awards in this month’s issue, declared that “reality is an essential ingredient” in its award. “We want to see projects hot off the drawing boards--ergo the requirement that they be not totally executed . . . but we look forward to seeing the selected projects built.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Architect said he has high hopes project will be built.

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The award went to Mangurian for a lively, singular design of a house, labeled Gilcrest, on a dramatic site above Beverly Hills. Gilbert Friesen, president of A&M; Records, had commissioned and paid Mangurian for the design. The other top award went to the San Diego firm of Pacific Associates Planners Architects (PAPA), also for a single-family house.

Mangurian said he has “high hopes” that the 5,000-square-foot project, dramatically designed to spill down a steep slope, eventually will be built. But the architect added he has had little contact with Friesen since last spring when the record company president bought and moved into another house in the Hollywood Hills.

In addition, Mangurian confirmed that no plans have been submitted for needed building permits or to contractors for construction estimates. He indicated that those considerations were the least of the problems. “The project is eminently buildable,” declared the architect, who teaches at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-ARC). Of more concern, he said, was the intent of the client.

Despite questions at the time concerning the future of the project, Mangurian submitted the project for consideration last September. Valerie Kanter Sisca, managing editor of the 70,000-circulation magazine, said a check was made in October to see if the project was alive. “We were told by a secretary in Friesen’s office that it was,” Sisca added.

In the deliberations of the awards jury, member Thom Mayne, a Venice architect who also teaches at SCI-ARC, declared that the Mangurian submission “shows a rigor, a commitment, a discipline, and an independence of thought that makes it really elegant, and clearly moves it beyond any of the projects we have seen.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Venice firm wins for its sensitive massing on a difficult site.

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There also was praise from the three other members of the jury for the project’s integration of building and landscape. New York architect Susana Torre called the scheme “dynamic and alive rather than static and predictable.”

When contacted two weeks ago by The Times, Friesen’s office said the executive was happy with his new house, and Gilcrest was not being constructed, though he still owns the building lot. Repeated telephone calls over a period of a week to interview Friesen at his convenience were to no avail.

After saying at the beginning of the week that Friesen would answer questions concerning the project, his office, at the end of the week, declared Friesen would have no comment, referred all questions to Mangurian, and said earlier comments that the house would not be built had been “off the record.” The office then stated that the house would be built, but added that this remark also was “off the record.”

Designs Never Executed

Though well respected as a theorist and teacher, Mangurian--as head of his own firm--has never had any of his designs executed. A residence combined with an art gallery he did in association with Craig Hodgetts in 1983 has been constructed in Venice.

Also, with Hodgetts and others, Mangurian has been on design teams that have won awards from Progressive Architecture in 1983 for an arts center in Venice, in 1976, for a settlement house in Columbus, Ohio, and in 1973, for a child-care center in New York. The settlement house and child-care center have been built, but the arts center has not.

The project for which the San Diego firm won an award poses none of the problems Mangurian faces. Its client is Randy Dalrymple, a principal of the firm and the project’s chief designer.

Permits Issued

Permits already have been issued for the 1,250-square-foot project, which Dalrymple estimates should cost about $90,000 to construct and be completed in this summer. “I’m just waiting for the bank to approve the loan,” the architect said. The firm is involved in a variety of projects representing construction in the millions of dollars, from residences to a city hall.

Winning one of the five citations awarded for architecture out of 684 submissions were Charles Lagreco and the Architectural Collective of Venice for a combined commercial and residential building scheduled to rise on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. The 36,000-square-foot building, including nine residential units, was cited for its sensitive massing on a difficult site. The project architect was Janek Tabencki.

In the area of urban design, which drew 94 submissions, a citation went to ELS Architects of Berkeley for its study of downtown Glendale. Among the issues the study addressed was how to enhance pedestrian life and better define street and open spaces along Brand Boulevard. The study was praised for its simplicity, practicality and applicability.

A citation for urban design also went to San Francisco’s Department of City Planning for its downtown plan. Other West Coast architectural firms gaining citations included Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership and Guthrie/Slusarenko/Leeb, both of Portland, Ore., for, respectively, a downtown redevelopment project in Seattle, and a master plan for a zoo in Portland.