Crown brings nature to LA’s heart

Sydney’s Crown Group is building a residential tower in LA that is set to redefine how architecture interacts with nature.

Koichi Takada Architects are behind the design of Sky Trees in LA.

When the time came for Sydney’s Crown Group to take the big development leap into the US, there was little question who business founder Iwan Sunito would call upon — celebrated Japanese Australian architect Koichi Takada.

The pair have created architecturally unique buildings around Australia and their vision offshore is no different.

Their planned Sky Trees tower sporting an undulating timber canopy referencing Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe’s “flying skirt” moment, in Los Angeles, is designed to resonate with the city’s celebrated street culture.

The developer and architect had previously collaborated on a series of local landmarks, with Takada designing four of Crown Group’s luxury residential apartment projects in Sydney.

They include the sold-out apartment development Infinity by Crown Group, with its famous looped facade, at Green Square to be finished in coming months, and the lush and tropical Waterfall by Crown Group that is nearing completion at inner city Waterloo. A buzz also surrounds the Mastery by Crown Group, a nearby $500 million Japanese-inspired community that is being designed by Takada and world-renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, at Waterloo.

This background makes extending the Crown-Takada partnership to Los Angeles a natural move for the groups, who share a love for innovative projects that push the envelope in the latest in building stylings and designs.

Takada’s philosophy is surprisingly simple.

He draws on natural life for inspiration when designing buildings. “There is more to architecture than the creation of beautiful forms, and it must involve all of our senses,” Takada says, citing the feeling of a soft breeze, the acoustics in a cave and the ambience of natural light through a tree canopy, as what he draws upon.

“These are elements we cannot draw, but try to involve in the experience of architecture,” he says.

Crown Group wants to take this kind of vision to Los Angeles, and it has just revealed an extraordinary design for a 63-storey residential tower in the city’s downtown area.

The 528-apartment building, to be known as Sky Trees, would rank as one of the city’s tallest, behind only the 73-storey Wilshire Grand Center and US Bank Tower.

With LA’s smog an ever-present threat Crown Group and Takada are pitching Sky Trees as the healthiest place to live in downtown Los Angeles.

Drawing inspiration from nature’s Californian Redwoods, the project features an expressive canopy that incorporates a “breathing green wall” designed to improve the city’s air quality, which would also serve as a unique landscaping feature to the streetscape.

“It is our desire through a nature-inspired approach to architecture, to transform an old existing warehouse district into a healthy and organic neighbourhood in LA,” Takada says.

Despite the tower’s sweeping form he is cautious about employing new technologies simply to make his buildings ever taller.

“We want to humanise tall buildings, to celebrate the pedestrian activities and consider how people experience it,” ­Takada says.