BLUM + POE
Los Angeles, CA
The international BLUM gallery – formerly Blum & Poe, founded in Santa Monica in 1994 – moved into its Escher GuneWardena-designed building in the Culver City Arts District in 2009. Elysian's envisioned this generously scaled but tight urban parcel as a 'gallery campus' with a multi-functional garden landscape on what had been a 22,000 square feet parking lot occupying half the site. Retaining enough parking for visitors, BLUM planned to dedicate the rest of the lot to exhibiting art and hosting events at all scales, from private gatherings to large public openings.
Large windows in the Escher GuneWardena building were designed to open out onto the garden, which grape ivy and passion vine – densely trellised on a custom steel mesh fence – screen from view. The campus was broken up into discrete areas, each one surfaced according to its purpose with decomposed granite, cement, gravel, or even grass.
Groves of Giant Timber Bamboo, Coast Live Oak, Paperbark Trees, and Desert Museum Palo Verde, and low-lying beds planted with colorful Flax, ‘Blue Flame’ Agave, and Coppertone Stonecrop break up the original blacktop to provide shade and foster a verdant atmosphere throughout the site.
Design Team:
Elysian Landscapes
Escher GuneWardena Architecture
Completed: 2012
Area: 22,000 sf