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Los Angeles County Administration Building
(ICO Vermont, LLC)
 
Artist: Ken Gonzales-Day Los Angeles County Administration Building (ICO Vermont, LLC)
Title: California Landscape, Variation 1-4
Date: 2007
District: Second Supervisorial District
Location: LA County Administration Building
8300-8400 So. Vermont
Los Angeles, California 90044
Architect: Gensler
Department: CAO Real Estate Division
   
 
ICO Vermont, LLC is developing a four-story, 220,000 square foot office building; a 6,000 square foot childcare center; 4,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, and a six-level 900-space parking structure which will be leased to the County of Los Angeles for use by four County departments: Social Services, Children and Family Services, Child Support Services, and Mental Health. 1,200 workers and 1,400 daily visitors will use the facility. This private development is subject to the CRA/LA's art requirement as it is to be built on land, a portion of which was owned by the CRA/LA. The CRA/LA has transferred oversight of the project's art requirement to the LA County Arts Commission.
Los Angeles County Administration Building (ICO Vermont, LLC)

Ken Gonzales-Day's concept impacts key walls within the overall development in an effort to soften, and add color and texture to otherwise concrete or stone surfaces. He will use photographic glazed tiles recessed into wall surfaces. The material and process is technically advanced so as to produce detailed high-quality 12" x 12" ceramic tile images which are durable and graffiti resistant.

In addition to being technically advanced, Ken Gonzales-Day's concept introduces imagery which is appropriate to the site and its uses. Once built, this

building will be occupied by County departments with the largest concentration of social service caseloads in the County. Gonzales-Day's imagery will add a calming effect to a sometimes tense environment. Large-scale images of a traditional old California landscapes, mostly oak trees, are strategically placed throughout the building. Overall, Gonzales-Day's work evokes a pure unaltered landscape full of optimism and possibility. It might also suggest a dreamscape of quiet, calm and purity on which the viewer might play out his or her hopes for a better tomorrow.

About the Artist: Ken Gonzales-Day is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Art, Scripps College. He was a Senior Fellow at the Smithsonian's American Art Museum and participated in the Whitney's Independent Study Program. His book, Lynching in the West: 1850-1935, was published by Duke University Press in 2006. Gonzales-Day received an MFA from UC Irvine and a BFA from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn.

Renderings by Gensler