STYLE : ARCHITECTURE : Street Smart

Some of the most interesting homes, restaurants, stores and even gardens are meant to be appreciated from the driver’s seat. In Southern California, describing a building as unobtrusive isn’t necessarily a compliment because unobtrusive can mean boring when whizzing by at a gasoline-powered clip. Bold, dramatic and daring, today’s architecture sets the pace for design in the fast lane until--Caltrans, don’t give up--everyone parks the car and walks.

Brix, an offshoot of Fig Tree’s Cafe on the Venice Boardwalk, stands at one of Los Angeles’ busier intersections (Washington Boulevard, just west of Lincoln, between Venice and Marina del Rey). Formerly a fast-food chicken outlet with a wraparound parking lot, the glass-walled restaurant needed something to give it more presence on the heavily traveled street. Ron Golan, Eric Kahn and Russell Thomsen of the Central Office of Architecture came up with a solution inspired by a Southern California icon: a billboard-like facade of perforated aluminum. This handsome silvery screen-wall doubles as sign and protective canopy. It reinforces the street line, catches the eye of motorists and reduces the sun’s glare and visual chaos without shutting off the view.

A mile away in Venice, the challenge for architect James McGlothlin was not to stand out too much. Four rental units were to replace small-scale houses despite neighborhood objections. McGlothlin’s goal was to balance the developers’ desire to build to the permitted limits and the residents’ demand that he preserve the scale of the street. Now a row of duplexes rises from ground floors that are, technically, basement storage areas. The four designs reduce the bulk of the structures and create a single composition, urbane and relatively harmonious. Bold red, green and pink accent surface patterns. And a large palm tree, like the Brix billboard, is a source of shade and a symbol of protection.