Binoculars Building - Frank Gehry - Venice, CA - Master Architects - Deconstructivism on Waymarking.com

Two large buildings on Main Street in Venice, one boat-like and one tree-like were designed by Frank Gehry for the Chiat/Day advertising agency. Gehry wanted to join them in the center with a third structure of a sculptural character that would mediate between the two and anchor the building. Frank Gehry contacted Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen.

Looking for something to demonstrate what he had in mind, he placed a pair of small binoculars, which fortuitously almost fit, in the center of a scale model of the Chiat/Day facade.

Gehry generously proposed sharing the facade of his building with them and the next few years were spent in the complex task of developing the binoculars form into a part of the architecture. Attention focused as much on the interior as the exterior of the Binoculars and on the addition of windows, without which, Gehry insisted, the structure would not really be a building.

Two tall unusually shaped rooms, created by following the curves of the binoculars, opened onto a conference room, the ceiling of which was covered with a version of Gehry's signature snake form. The two curved rooms were intended to serve as places of retreat.

From the arcspace, architecture and design magazine website:

The 75,000 square foot, three-story office space was designed specifically for the use of Chiat/Day advertising agency as its West Coast Corporate Headquarters. The building sits atop three levels of underground parking for three hundred cars. The Main Street facade is expressed as three distinct elements which relate in scale and level of detail to the surrounding neighborhood. The entry to the parking structure is through the centrally placed binoculars, conceived and created in collaboration with Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. The binoculars contain space for private conferencing and research and are tied into the main client conference room. Each cylinder is topped by one skylight oculus.

Chiat/Day is no longer a tenant in the building. In January, 2011, Google leased 100,000 square feet in this building and two adjacent buildings.

Architect: Frank Gehry Building name: Binoculars Building, formerly Chiat/Day Building Year built: 1985-1991 Building's primary use: Commercial City: Venice Country: USA

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