CLUI + Helipads + Skyscraper Blues
The good folks over at the Center for Land Use Interpretation have an exhibition up titled, "Elevated Descent: The Helipads of Downtown Los Angeles."
TTLA is embarrassed to admit not yet having seen the show. Art critic David Pagel did and wrote this.
Here's CLUI's online description of "Elevated":
"A second landscape of Los Angeles is exposed when seen from above: the geometric terrain of helipads. This staggered plateau of rooftop space has arisen as if buildings push the land they displace skyward. "The pads, required by building codes for buildings over 75 feet tall, are marked with symbols - semaphores for mechanical angels, falling on the city, from above. "The elevated ground is accessible only to those who rise above it, though it is visible, in a sense, through the vertical views of internet imaging - looking down, from aloft."
The building code mentioned above is Sec. 57.118.12 from "Public Safety and Protection," Chapter V of the Los Angeles Municipal Code.
Titled, "Emergency Helicopter Landing Facility" the code's language begins: "Each building shall have a rooftop emergency helicopter landing facility in a location approved by the Chief." The code mandates these helipads be 50'x50' and include a 25' safety buffer.
As TTLA noted here, and originally, here for Next American City Online, the code's primary effect has been to produce a bland, flat skyline for contemporary Los Angeles, while the rest of the world is making safe, sophisticated, and shapelier silhouettes.
Our pal, CLUI's Steve Rowell, contributed the two aerial photos for that Next American City story -- the middle shot, who knows where that came from?
Photo Credit: The image accompanying this post was taken by Flickr user Lewisha1990. It was used under Creative Commons license.
