LEONG LEONG’S NEW LGBT CENTER IN
HOLLYWOOD IS A WELCOMING HUB FOR
THE L.A. COMMUNITY
WORDS _Carolyn Horwitz
PHOTOGRAPHS _Iwan BaanPoint of
Pride
Groundbreaker _Anita May Rosenstein Campus Phase I _Los Angeles, California
“Fifty Years of Queer” is the slogan announcing the
Los Angeles LGBT Center’s semicentennial celebration
this year. Yet despite its steadfast presence in the city,
the organization – which says it serves more LGBT
people than any other body in the world – has never
had a cohesive facility that could accommodate its
multi-faceted mission. Over the years, the Center’s
health and housing services, education and advocacy
programs and administration have all operated from
disparate locations around Hollywood. With the April
inauguration of the Anita May Rosenstein Campus,
designed by New York–based Leong Leong with local
firm Killefer Flammang Architects (KFA), that changed.
The master plan (which covers over 17,000 square
metres) employs a layered series of glass and white
stucco volumes to accommodate 12 distinct programs,
including transitional and emergency housing, com-
munal areas, career-development and educational
services, an event space and administration for the
organization, which has about 700 employees.
Affordable and supportive housing for youth and
seniors will be added with the completion of the
project’s second phase next year. Amplifying the archi-
tects’ challenge in developing this complex agenda
was the need to provide privacy and security for clients,
many of whom are homeless youth, while simultane-
ously creating an inviting public space with iconic
architecture that would bolster the Los Angeles LGBT
Center’s status worldwide.
“When people hear ‘gay centre,’ they think, ‘Oh,
it’s going to be a little storefront with some beanbag
chairs,’ ” says Alan Acosta, the Center’s director of
strategic initiatives. “We knew this building could be
a magnet, and represent what a focused, healthy and
organized community can build.”
The dual mandate of creating both a safe space and
a high-profile institution informed the plan, particularly