Situated at the intersection of the Los Angeles River and the First Street Bridge, the new Center for Architecture and Urban Design will serve as a new landmark for the city that will encourage community gathering by creating an interstitial space between the Los Angeles Arts District and Boyle Heights. 

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Expressing verticality over the horizontally-dominated site, the project makes one simple sweeping gesture in order to minimize further complicating the already rich preexisting site. The project will not challenge the current site conditions but will complement them. As one travels up the tower, one will get a different view of the bridge and river that could not be seen in a horizontal project. It was built up instead of across in order to fully capture the views of the city, the mountains, the bridge, and the river. 

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The tower is a place to see and see from.