My research on the Ocean Towers turned out to be an unexpectedly exciting experience. As usual I began with a research in our university library – unfortunately with no satisfying result. The next step was a inquiry in established magazine search engines – again with no satisfying result. So I was forced to continue my research in a common search engine – Surprisingly, I was confronted with countless results which redirected me to real estate agency pages. I did not expect to come across the architecture of a famous architect in a highly popular region like Santa Monica, still to take place in an advertising/commercial context. This kind of represantation leads to questions: Why is this building is mainly featured in commercial-oriented settings or does the architecture possess a lack of quality to be represented autonomously in the literature? Perhaps the architect himself did not wanted to give priority to the building.
The literature on Krisel does not represent or analyse the Ocean Ave. Towers architecture as an independent work. It is mostly mentioned as a comparison to other buildings without any deeper information concerning the Towers themselves.[1] The Ocean Avenue Towers were designed as luxurious residential apartment buildings under the partnership of Krisel/Shapiro & Associates in 1971.[2] The towers consist of two identical steeples which were built symmetrically to each other and an attached building, which serves as a connection between the two Towers. The high-rise condominium is quite untypical for the horizontal orientated area of Los Angeles. Marketed on real estate pages as the tallest residential building in Santa Monica[3] with a total height of 160 ft, the Ocean Ave. Towers contain 17 floors.[4] Located on an elevation right in front of the beach of Santa Monica, the Towers benefit from a gorgeous view which is used as an advertising preference.[5]
Author: Begüm Inal
[1]Creighton, Heidi/Menrad, Chris, William Krisel’s Palm Springs. The Language of Modernism, Layton 2016, p. 135
[2]Creighton/Chris 2016, p. 32
[3]https://therealdeal.com/la/2016/03/01/apartment-portfolio-hits-market-at-santa-monicas-201-ocean/ (7.3.2017)
[4]http://www.highrises.com/los-angeles/ocean-towers/ (7.3.2017)
[5]William Krisel, Architect. R.: Jake Gorst. USA 2010. TC: 01:09:43 – 01:12:10