Los Angeles Times - 04.03.2020

E4 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2020 LATIMES.COM/CALENDAR

1045 Broxton Ave • Westwood • (310) 208-3250

TheLANDMARK WESTWOOD

11272 Santa Monica Blvd • West L.A. • (310) 473-8530

NUART THEATRE

10850 W. Pico at Westwood • West L.A. •(310) 470-0492

3 Hours Free Parking. Additional 2 Hours $3 with Validation.

THE LANDMARK LOUNGE HAPPY HOUR • Daily 4:00pm–6:30pm & 9:00pm–10:30pm

landmarktheatres.com/los-angeles

()atDiscount = No Passes = The Screening Lounge

●Closed Captioning Open Captioning ■Descriptive Video Service

VALID WEDNESDAY MARCH  ONLY © 2020 Landmark Theatres

ENDS TOMORROW!

CORPUS CHRISTI(NR)

(12:00, 2:25, 4:50) 7:15, 9:40

▼●BURDEN(R)

(11:10, 1:50, 3:20, 4:30) 7:10, 9:45

▼●■GREED(R)

(11:50, 12:50, 2:25, 5:00) 7:30, 9:55

▼●■WENDY(PG-13)

(11:15, 12:05, 1:50, 2:40, 4:25, 5:15)

7:00, 7:50, 9:30

▼●■EMMA(PG)

(11:30, 1:30, 2:20, 4:20, 5:10) 7:10,

8:00, 9:55

ENDS TOMORROW!

▼●■SEBERG(R)

(11:45, 2:15, 4:45) 7:15, 9:40

(R)PORTRAIT OF A

LADY ON FIRE

(11:10, 1:55, 4:40) 7:25, 10:05

▼●(R)ONCE WERE

BROTHERS: ROBBIE

ROBERTSON AND

THE BAND

(11:50, 2:20, 4:45) 7:10, 9:30

PARASITE(R)

(11:00, 1:50, 4:40) 7:30, 10:10

ENDS TOMORROW!

●■JOJO RABBIT(PG-13)

(11:35, 4:15)

ENDS TOMORROW!

●■(R)ORDINARY

LOVE

(2:10) 10:10

SPECIAL ADVANCE SHOWS TOMORROW!

▼●■FIRST COW(PG-13)

SPECIAL ADVANCE SHOWS TOMORROW!

▼●■HOPE GAP(PG-13)

• Dolby ATMOS Sound System


• State of the Art Projection


• Platformed Auditorium
  Seating
  
  
  • Luxury Leather Seats
  
  
  • Cinema Snacks
  
  
  • Popcorn with Real Buer
  
  
  • Concierge Station
  
  
  
  

OPENING SOON!

BOX OFFICE: 562.436.3203 | LONGBEACHSYMPHONY.ORG

CONCERT SPONSORED BY THE ROBERT D. HANSON* TRUST,

THE WESTIN LONG BEACH AND THE WOLFE FOUNDATION

LONG BEACH SYMPHONY

MARCH 7 8

PM

M 8

L

BEETHOVEN

CONCERTO

FOR VIOLIN

MAR4@ 7:30PM

NPR’sFromtheTopcomestoTheWallistoamplify

andcelebratetheamazingtalentsandvoicesof

virtuosicyoungmusiciansfromCaliforniaand

beyondwithGuestHostVijayGupta.

Recommendedforadultsandchildrenages7+.

310.746.4000 | TheWallis.org/FTT

Thisconcertismadepossiblewithgeneroussupportfrom

GregoryAnnenbergWeingartenandGRoW@TheWallis.

only solo woman to have won

a RIBA gold medal.)

Both prizes mark an im-

portant moment for women

in architecture, but also a

professional acme for the

architects, a decidedly low-

key duo in a field known for its

gassy bombast.

In their interviews, Farrell

and McNamara don’t pontifi-

cate about theory. Instead,

they talk about “generosity”

in design, an idea that served

as a guiding principle of

“Freespace,” the 2018 edition

of the Venice Architecture

Biennale they organized.

When they won the Royal

Gold Medal last month, they

thanked all of their collabora-

tors, including the “workmen

and women whose names we

don’t know.”

They may talk softly, but

Farrell and McNamara carry

some big design sticks.

Namely, their buildings —

which aren’t about the manu-

facture of splashy icons, but

instead about crafting au-

thoritative forms that show

an intense deference to site.

This has included a range

of public and educational

structures all over their na-

tive Ireland, as well as uni-

versity buildings in France,

Italy and the U.K.

In the Peruvian capital

city of Lima, they completed

the Universidad de Ingien-

ería y Tecnología (UTEC, as

it’s known) in 2015 — their

only building in the Americas

— a concrete structure that

soars over a ravine like an

architectonic cliff, echoing

the cliffs that hug the desert

city’s shoreline nearby.

From a distance, UTEC

looks like “a fragment of an

ancient colosseum,” archi-

tecture critic Oliver Wain-

wright, of the Guardian,

wrote of the structure in 2017.

But move in close and “you

get a thrilling view of inter-

secting concrete beams and

slabs, an aerial ballet of stag-

gered terraces connected by

flying walkways and leaping

staircases.” Though large in

scale, he added, the building

offers “little nooks and patio

gardens, sheltered places to

be alone and enjoy the view

out over the city.”

Architecture talks

The architects’ ability to

combine mass with more hu-

man spaces, as well as their

attention to context, was

noted by the Pritzker judges

in their citation. “The dia-

logues they create between

buildings and surroundings

demonstrate a new apprecia-

tion of both their works and

place.”

“Within the ethos of a

practice such as ours, we have

so often struggled to find

space for the implementation

of such values as humanism,

craft, generosity, and cultural

connection with each place

and context within which we

work,” said McNamara in a

statement. “It is therefore ex-

tremely gratifying that this

recognition is bestowed upon

us and our practice.”

That practice began in

1978, just two years after the

architects had both graduat-

ed from the School of Archi-

tecture at University College

Dublin. (They began Grafton

Architects with three other

partners, who, over time,

departed, leaving Farrell and

McNamara as principals.)

From the start, their prac-

tice has shown a deep atten-

tion to material, whatever

that material may be.

A home they designed in

Dublin in the late 1990s pairs

cool walls made of brick and

poured concrete with the co-

ziness of laminated wood

timbers. Their University of

Limerick Medical School

complex employs limestone

in sandy tones for the main

institutional building, while

using brick in warmer terra-

cotta shades for its adjacent

residences.

Of their philosophy, Far-

rell recently told Building De-

sign magazine: “We cut from

the earth. If you are taking

things that are millions of

years old, you better use

them properly.”

‘A rock’ and ‘a bog’

Their affinity to these na-

tural elements is something

that perhaps the architects

can trace to their roots: Mc-

Namara was born in County

Clare, known for its rugged

coastline, while Farrell was

born in Tullamore, in the

Irish lowlands. “I’m a rock

person and she’s a bog per-

son,” McNamara once told an

interviewer.

For much of their career,

they worked almost exclu-

sively in Ireland, until about a

dozen years ago, when their

buildings began to materi-

alize in other European cit-

ies, including London and

Milan. In fact, it was the latter

project, in Italy, that raised

their international profile:

the Universita Luigi Bocco-

ni’s School of Economics,

which occupies a dense cor-

ner on the Viale Bligny on the

south side of Milan.

The building deftly balan-

ces a number of needs: pri-

vate office spaces and public

lecture areas; a large educa-

tional institution tucked in

amid small-scale businesses

and apartment houses.

Grafton’s design maintains

the height and scale of the

neighborhood but adds a

Tetris-like arrangement of

geometric forms on two fa-

cades that make for a com-

manding presence. “Muscu-

lar,” one might call them, to

use a favorite term of male

architecture critics. I’ll settle

on “potent” and “vigorous.”

Equally remarkable are

the insides, which, with a

skillful arrangement of atria,

allow daylight to pour into

the building, including the

parts that lie below grade.

(Fresh air and daylight are a

big component of the firm’s

work.)

In 2008, the Royal Insti-

tute of the Architects of Ire-

land awarded the Bocconi

building its inaugural World

Building of the Year prize.

Since then, other com-

missions have followed: the

UTEC campus in Peru, an

economics school for the Uni-

versité Toulouse in France,

completed last year, as well

as an ongoing building for the

London School of Economics

in England.

In 2012, the firm won the

Silver Lion at the Venice

Architecture Biennale for an

exhibition that juxtaposed

elements of their designs for

UTEC with ideas by Brazil-

ian Paulo Mendes da Rocha

(also a Pritzker Prize win-

ner), an architect who is

known for his sculptural facil-

ity with concrete.

Just six years later, Farrell

and McNamara were curat-

ing the Architecture Bienna-

le themselves, only the sec-

ond time in four decades in

which women have run the

show. (The first was in 2010,

when Kazuyo served as sole

curator.)

The show’s theme,

“Freespace,” was one that

was less preoccupied with

the formal qualities of archi-

tecture — its grand facades

or its squiggling rooflines

(though it contained plenty

of it) — than in the ways in

which design could deliver

experience, be it social or

contemplative. As part of

that, small gestures became

key: Farrell and McNamara

opened up blacked-out win-

dows and skylights both in

the Arsenale and in the Giar-

dini’s Central Pavilion, in the

process uncovering a window

and door that had been de-

signed by Italian Modernist

Carlo Scarpa.

It was like inviting the city

of Venice back into the show.

Moreover, behind the

Arsenale they placed a row of

marble benches so that visi-

tors could sit and simply gaze

at the water. “Whenever we

came here,” McNamara said,

“we always thought it was a

beautiful place for sitting

down.”

The move was a simple

one — in keeping with

Grafton’s ideas about the

ways in which architecture

can embrace generosity. (It

was practical too, since after

looking at an architectural

exhibition that’s three foot-

ball fields long, about the

only thing a visitor can do is

sit and stare at the horizon in

a state of abject stupor.)

The Pritzkers have a long

tradition of honoring Euro-

pean architects, but Farrell

and McNamara are the first

architects from Ireland to

win the award. (Last year, the

honor went to Japanese

architect Arata Isozaki,

known in Los Angeles for his

design of the Museum of

Contemporary Art on Grand

Avenue.)

Jury members for this

year’s award included

Kazuyo and Chinese archi-

tect Wang Shu (both Pritzker

Prize-winners), as well as

architectural historian Barry

Bergdoll and U.S. Supreme

Court Justice Stephen

Breyer. The location for the

ceremony, generally held at

an architecturally significant

site, will be announced in the

coming weeks.

TOWN HOUSEat London’s Kingston University, like many Farrell and McNamara designs, is open and airy.

Ed Reeves

Designs ‘from the earth’

[Pritzker,from E1]

THE URBANInstitute of Ireland is among Farrell

and McNamara’s projects in their home country.

Ros Kavanagh