Not only is his death a loss to the profession, but it affected us personally as he was part of our cultureNOW family.  When we undertook an internship program with USC students at the AIA LA in 2013, he was one of the most generous members of our team of advisors welcoming us into his office and recording many podcasts about his architecture.  

Lorcan O'Herlihy, Architect, Lorcan O'Herlihy passed away on Sunday.  Both a painter and an architect he was noted mostly for his social housing projects. 

 

Habitat825 - 2007 - Habitat825 addresses critical issues of density and boundaries, presenting new forms that cater to contemporary city living. Acknowledging and engaging Rudolph Schindler’s adjacent landmark house on Kings Road, LOHA reinterprets Schindler’s explorations of light, material, color, and common space for today’s urban inhabitant. Habitat825 presented an opportunity to consider the cultural and social impacts of building adjacent to a historic site. Built in 1922 on expansive land, the Schindler House is considered the first Modern residence, incorporating new ideals of common and engaging space. Its two woven “L” forms comprise two separate family apartments, and its permeable walls and shared cooperative courtyard set precedents for Southern California multi-unit housing. Measures were taken to preserve the Schindler House’s relationship with its landscape. Habitat825’s section fluctuates in height to avoid casting direct shadows and its plan bends inward to open up along the bordering property line to allow breathing room. Habitat825 joins the many multi-story apartment buildings that now surround the Schindler House on urban infill lots. The building’s green façade, a nod to Schindler’s consideration toward natural contexts and color, creates a distinct mark that enlivens the streetscape. Habitat825’s own interlinked “L” masses promote a brand of integrated living that follows in the same vein set by Schindler over 80 years ago. Internally, a loose central courtyard is bound by weaved circulation. Walkways open and constrict, encouraging impromptu interactions. Habitat825’s 19 units all open to this common space and landscaping, rather than “hard” boundaries, delineates private area set within the common courtyard. The pushed-back front façade promotes a semi-public zone that offers benches between the building and the street. The building cultivates an agenda for urban community both within and beyond its walls.

Willoughby7919 - 2008 - This 8-unit residential project, located within a West Hollywood area zoned for medium density growth, presents strategies for dynamic spatial integration upon an infill lot through both its interior and exterior design. Internally, multi-floor units deviate from the typical loft scheme of stacking demising walls to yield a common and homogenous layout for each unit. Instead, the line of division between units is staggered by floor such that each unit extends into the space of its adjacent neighbor. This introduces a variety of spaces that cater to robust and differentiated activity. The horizontal staggering also enables the insertion of open spaces, conceived as outdoor rooms that let in light and comprise a breathable edge within the densifying neighborhood. While the façade’s cutouts create a visual tunneling effect into the units, the street level similarly heightens community engagement. Entrances to the units abut the sidewalk, a rarity in the Los Angeles area. Furthermore, an envelope of stainless steel mesh, mounted on a custom bracket system, produces a dynamic and engaging moiré pattern. The material, which facilitates the growth of vine flora, welcomes the landscape onto the building itself.

Skid Row Housing Trust Management Offices - 2011 - The Skid Row district of downtown Los Angeles accommodates the nation’s largest stable homeless population. As part of an on-going collaboration with the Skid Row Housing Trust [SRHT], a non-profit that provides permanent supportive housing within the neighborhood, LOHA designed a management office that doubles as space for rehabilitative training and community empowerment efforts. The SRHT management headquarters are a tenant improvement project embedded within the landscape of Skid Row. Working with a low budget, LOHA took the ready-made architecture of a warehouse space and utilized off-the-shelf materials to create a custom lighting installation. The refreshingly scenographic experience conceals a no-frills pre-existing structure. In addition to encompassing the operational offices of a non-profit, the headquarters also comprise flux-spaces that often host public events and training workshops for the local community.

Grupo Gallegos Creative Headquarters - 2010 - A non-traditional workplace, the Grupo Gallegos headquarters supports a creative organization’s unique culture. LOHA resourcefully dials into a contextual economy of means, repurposing the everyday beach umbrella as a functional element that creatively distinguishes and enhances the aesthetic of the office. The design incorporates programming beyond the scope of the typical workplace thus providing an environment that feels as much like an office as it does a community hub. Grupo Gallegos is a marketing communications company best known for delivering award-winning campaigns to the Spanish-speaking market. Sited by the Huntington Beach Pier in the official Surf City of the nation, the client brief called upon LOHA to convert an existing cinema into offices incorporating elements of both coastal and Hispanic life. The resulting spaces are a colorful setting for the workplace community’s relaxed social culture. Conference rooms hover over an open office space, embodying the integrated and layered character of operational flow in the organization. The protruding chambers double as billboards; as their louvered facades are pulled shut, the emblazoned Spanish word ‘ocupado’ is formed to affirm the room’s use. A grand staircase converts into amphitheater seating for events and presentations. The facilities also include a gym, basketball court, and juice bar. As an artistic gesture to further brighten the workplace, over 300 custom sunbrellas hang over the workplace, alluding to both the beach and the umbrellas of photography shoots. The white umbrellas, fire-proofed in LOHA’s workshop studio, are used to reflect light and conceal fire protection.

Cloverdale749 - 2013 - This project’s design was informed by parameters derived from a driven market rate strategy that strove to maximize FAR, challenging the architect to celebrate the completeness of the structure’s volume while introducing compelling nuances inside, within, and beyond the building’s envelope. The building is a study in both simplicity and complexity through its use of a white perforated skin. While its whiteness expresses an optimistic clarity, the ridged metal façade becomes an intricately choreographed display of transformable layers. Dependent on viewing and lighting angles, the sheathing reveals and conceals patios and interiors. As the building’s vertical ribbing catches the sun throughout the day, a play of light and shadow occurs. A blurring of interior and exterior spaces is integral to the design of this project. Circulation is pushed to the exterior, eliminating the need for inner hallways. Private open balconies front the street and are articulated by the building’s skin while the rooftop offers patios and roof-decks. The perforated building surface filters a sense of openness into private zones and dilutes the light that enters through clerestories and expansive glazing. Units span multiple floors, and spaces features a complex system of connectivity be it achieved through inner circulation or the spiral stair that extends through balconies and to the roof. From the inside, the large openings frame vistas of the building’s Miracle Mile context and beyond.

Formosa1140 - 2009 - The Los Angeles region is notorious for its lack of urban public space; LOHA’s design for Formosa1140 addresses this condition by radically parceling out a third of its privately-owned building site as a publicly-managed pocket park for the City of West Hollywood. Formosa1140 simultaneously creates density and green space and models a replicable prototype for incremental community-driven city development. By pushing the housing volume to one side of the building lot, LOHA provides each residential unit with park frontage. Formosa’s facade is achieved through a unique choreography of per¬forated metal sheathing and fenestration. This variation of privacy screens and open balcony voids within the facade allows for the public realm of the park to intrude into the private volume of the building. Formosa1140’s permeable envelope promotes an urbanity of resident-community interaction. Due to cross-ventilation and other passively sustainable features, Formosa1140 exceeds the strict standards of the City of West Hollywood Green Building Program as well as the California Standards for low energy consumption. Located in a redevelopment area previously blighted by high deterioration, crime, and abandonment, Formosa1140’s award-winning red form grounds its park, brightens its neutral surroundings, and has helped catalyze the revitalization of West Hollywood.

House Noir - 2019 - House Noir, designed by Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects (LOHA), is a resilient beachfront home in Malibu. The house is raised 20 feet above the shoreline to address coastal erosion and rising sea levels. It features aluminum siding and a seawall for durability, and maximizes ocean and hillside views with strategically placed openings. The design emphasizes indoor-outdoor living, with floor-to-ceiling sliding doors and angled balconies.

Isla Intersections Supportive Housing - 2024 - The Isla Intersections Supportive Housing, designed by Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects (LOHA), is a modular housing project located in South Los Angeles. The 35,000 square-foot development consists of 54 units, each assembled from three recycled steel shipping containers. The units are compact and efficient, featuring an open plan with an ADA kitchen, bathroom, and living room that doubles as a bedroom. The design includes staggered towers connected by walkways, creating communal outdoor spaces and pocket parks. The project aims to provide affordable housing while enhancing the surrounding community.