The monolithic Armenian American Museum (AAM) in Glendale, California, is officially a step closer to reality after the Glendale City Council voted to approve the current design on April 17. The nearly 60,000-square-foot museum, massed as a dramatic cube that upturns above the building’s entrances, was designed by Glendale’s Alajajian Marcoosi Architects (AMA). The heavily engraved facade simultaneously references both Mount Ararat as well as the Verdugo Mountains surrounding the city of Glendale. It’s a fitting touch, as the museum itself will hold exhibitions and historical research into the Armenian American experience, and because Glendale holds the greatest number of Armenian residents in the U.S. The City Council’s approval paves the way for formalizing the construction of the $30 million museum. As LA Weekly reports, a 55-year, one-dollar-a-year lease is being finalized so that the museum can build on the southwest corner of Central Park Paseo, which is currently undergoing an overhaul by the international SWA Group that will ultimately increase the amount of available green space. The AAM will have the option to renew its lease up to four times in ten-year increments. The back of the AAM’s three-story block will open up to new “Glendale Central Park,” as well as a through-block pedestrian, adult recreation center, central library, and a children’s play zone. The 40,000 to 50,000 square feet lost by the museum will be offset by the conversion of existing parking spaces in Central Park Paseo into parkland. Inside, the museum will strive to build bridges across different immigrant communities by carving out space to hold cultural displays, as well as an international demonstration kitchen. Construction is slated to begin summer 2019, with the AAM’s opening in 2022, presuming that the funding goal can be met. While the state has given the institution a $4 million grant, the rest of the $30 million will be coming from private donations.

Instagrammers who are fed up with the proliferating bans on selfie sticks in more traditional museums can now find solace at a new pop-up in Glendale, California. From April 1 through May 31, visitors to the pop-up Museum of Selfies can learn more about the history of the photographic form, as well as take their own memorable snapshots. Co-founded by two escape room designers, Tommy Honton and Tair Mamedov, the museum’s installations are designed to bridge the gap between mainstream consumerism and the more aloof air of the art world. Through recreations of famous Van Gogh paintings and satirical takes on common selfie locations (gyms, cars, restaurants), guests are encouraged to take their own selfies while also viewing examples of self-representation throughout the ages. In a tour ahead of the museum’s official opening, Hyperallergic spotted hyper-saturated walls with giant placards, an iron throne made of selfie sticks, and a black-and-white photo studio. All of the pieces double as Instagram-worthy backdrops on their own, complete with suggested hashtags. Even the museum’s bathroom is in on the fun, as the “mirror” actually leads to an empty, symmetrically-designed room and fails to reflect viewers. With new work commissioned from both domestic and international artists, including ruminations on how selfies have destroyed priceless art and in some cases lead to death, the museum wants to examine how interactions with art have been changed by technology. The macaque monkey selfie, responsible for a legal battle over ownership of the photograph that bankrupted the camera’s owner, has been put on display along with speculative graphic art and gags. "The relationship between people and art has changed," Mamedov told Mashable. "Now people don’t want to just be a silent consumer, they want to be a part of the art. There are many more selfies with the Mona Lisa than actual Mona Lisas." The Museum of Selfies’ merging of artistic theory with mass-market consumerism is deeper pop-up fare than, say, the Museum of Ice Cream, and the questions raised by the exhibition echoes those that the architectural field are still grappling with.

Renderings have been revealed for the forthcoming Armenian American Museum (AAM) in Glendale, California. The proposed 30,000-square-foot complex is designed by Glendale-based Alajajian Marcoosi Architects (AMA), a local architecture firm known for designing classically-inspired apartment and retail complexes. With their distinctive proposal for the AAM, however, AMA has traded in swept cornices for heroic expressionism. The firm’s chiseled design for the square-shaped museum complex hearkens toward the faceted and craggy faces of Mount Aragat in Armenia as well as toward the Verdugo Mountains that frame the city of Glendale, according to a project website. AMA beat out three other architecture firms for the commission, including Yazdani Studio of Cannon Design, Belzberg Architects, and Frederick Fisher and Partners. The museum is designed to host a variety of cultural exhibitions and educational events while also functioning as a research center aimed at cultivating “Armenian American culture, social justice, and pluralism,” the site explains. The City of Glendale is known locally as the heart of Los Angeles’s thriving Armenian community and is home to the largest number of ethnic Armenians outside of Yerevan, Armenia, that country’s capital city. Renderings for the project depict a bouldered cube punctured by entry portals and slivered windows along its principal facades. The complex contains a generous public entrance on Colorado Street—a main thoroughfare—and is set back from the street along this expanse. The building’s raised first floor caps above- and below- grade parking and is accessed via a broad staircase connecting the building’s entry level with the street below. The eastern end of the building contains a rooftop terrace while the center of the structure is capped by a large skylight. Renderings also depict stone and concrete-clad interior surfaces as well as a mix of interior multi-height spaces punctuated by balconies. The backside of the museum is designed to open onto a new central plaza that connects to arterial pedestrian paths. This central plaza—known as Glendale Central Park—is currently being redeveloped by SWA Group with the aim of creating a symbolic gathering space for the city that will connect the city’s Downtown Central Library with the new AAM, an adult recreation center, and a series of parks, play areas, and pedestrianized streets. The new master plan for the district was approved by the City of Glendale last week, paving the way for community outreach to begin for the project. The city-led project is expected to receive final approval in April 2018. A final construction timeline has not been announced.

Mainland Poke, a fast-casual restaurant specializing in chopped fish bowl restaurants recently opened a second outfit at the Americana outdoor pedestrian mall in Glendale, designed by Culver City, California–based Abramson Teiger Architects. The original location is located in Los Angeles's Beverly Grove neighborhood.

The firm utilized poke bowls’ aquatic origin—a poke bowl is a dish of cubed fresh fish served over rice and topped with an assortment of flavorful toppings—and the traditional fish markets where one might go to acquire their ingredients, as inspiration: A polished concrete floor is topped by a medley of fine design objects such as minimalist chairs and tables and smooth marble countertops. The 1200-square-foot store consists of a single brightly lit dining room facing the street, its mostly-glass storefront supplemented by a glass block transom window.

A decorative pattern comprised of variously recessed wooden blocks lines a main interior wall, while tessellated white tiles reminiscent of fish scales wrap the separate food preparation area. Design principal Trevor Abramson explained, “The white tiles and wood talk to materials found in a traditional fish market and are a perfect palette for the vibrant colors found in the fresh fish poke.”

Mainland Poke 252 S. Brand Boulevard, Glendale, CA Tel: 213-712-2683 Architects: Abramson Teiger Architects

Five years after closing its Downtown L.A. location, the Museum of Neon Art (MONA) has reopened in a new space between the Americana at Brand and a public library branch in Downtown Glendale. The country’s only museum dedicated to neon, MONA will feature works by contemporary artists in rotating exhibitions as well as a permanent collection of the kinds of signifier-icons that distinguish Los Angeles’s vernacular architecture. Included, for instance, is the famous Brown Derby sign that was once a Hollywood beacon.

An 8,400 square foot renovation is joined by a new public space and, fittingly, neon-adorned signage that draws from the museum’s collection. Sited on one of Glendale’s broad and highly trafficked boulevards, South Brand, MONA’s new facade embeds the museum in its cultural-commercial context, which includes landmarks such as the Alex Theatre’s famous marquee and more quotidian neighbors like BevMo.

A partnership between the Glendale Redevelopment Agency, the Department of City Planning, and Shimoda Design Group (SDG) generated the programmatic focus on public space and public programs. Using the powerful draw of the Americana complex, the designers and museum board hope to pull visitors from the mixed-use mall to the west, and, using the covered passage that bisects MONA and the generous open space around it, knit the Americana, the Glendale Central Library and Park, and the Museum together into one symbiotic, activated Downtown whole.

Shimoda’s adaptation of two existing buildings—a Rite Aid and a video arcade—reflects a thoughtful opportunism. The project was treated as “a surgical incision.” Since the structure and shell are largely preserved, the exuberance of the museum’s collection is allowed to play off of the patina of the buildings’ history. “It was important to use an existing building because the signs really thrive in a space that looks older,” Joey Shimoda, Principal of SDG, explained. Exposed ductwork and a restrained palette—brick, honed concrete, and white and black paint—further draw the art into focus. The project’s major architectural moves create or interact with public space: a double height lobby and broad, glazed entry face the street. Along with the neon inside, this creates “a lantern for the community.” The public paseo, created through strategic demolition, bisects the site and draws visitors across a landscaped deck to the park and library behind.

The museum, originally founded in 1981 by Lili Lakich and Richard Jenkins, has been guided by a celebration of Southern California’s built heritage—including the signs that have adorned its drugstore, diner, and gas station facades—and a respect for the craft of “neon bending.” Workshops will be held in MONA’s street-fronting neon bending studio and visitors will be encouraged to experience Los Angeles’ neon in its proper context: nightly bus tours will highlight the newly renovated Clifton’s Cafeteria and other historic Downtown L.A. landmarks. 

Four teams have been shortlisted to compete for the design of the Armenian American Museum in Glendale, California. Commemorating the contributions of Armenian-Americans and "sharing the Armenian experience," the 30,000-square-foot building will include exhibition space, an auditorium, library, classrooms, and support spaces. The announcement came on the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The teams, chosen by the Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee (AGCC) of the Western US, include Yazdani Studio of Cannon Design, Belzberg Architects, Frederick Fisher and Partners, and Alajajian-Marcoosi Architects. The museum is in negotiations with the city of Glendale to secure a 1.7 acre property for the institution just south of the Glendale Civic Auditorium, at 1305 North Verdugo Rd. Lord Cultural Resources (who consulted on the 9/11 Memorial Museum) are helping develop the master plan for the museum site. Conceptual plans are due in mid-May, and the winning team will be chosen this June, said Berdj Karapetian, chairman of the AGCC's Landmark Sub-Committee. Karapetian said that after a feasibility study is completed the museum will begin raising money for the building, which he estimates could cost roughly $30 million to construct.

Shimoda Design Group's Museum of Neon Art, whose future had been placed in Jeopardy with the closing of California's redevelopment agencies, has been saved, says the Glendale News-Press.  Last week an oversight board composed of various Glendale officials voted to leave the museum's contract in place. The two-story, 7,300 square foot building with an adjacent 5,000 square foot plaza is anticipated to become the southern anchor for Glendale’s emerging arts and entertainment district. It will contain, among many other items, the Virginia Court Motel Diver, a large, bright red and white marquee dating from the 1940’s that will be placed on the museum’s roof; and a 20-foot-tall Clayton Plumbers Sign, with its giant neon faucet and neon blue drips, which will be located in the open air plaza.