Westfield Culver City, Los Angeles | David Trubridge, Jeff Kopp & Chris Doyle

PROJECT Westfield Culver City
CLIENT Westfield
LOCATION Culver City, CA, USA
ARTISTS Chris Doyle, Jeff Kopp, David Trubridge
CURATOR LACE, Carol Stakenas, UAP, Jodie Cox
DESIGN UAP Studio, Elishia Whitchurch
FABRICATION UAP, David Trubridge Studio
YEAR 2009

Culver City, California is nestled to the west of Los Angeles and is known as “The heart of screenland”. At the focal point of a recent city-wide regeneration, Urban Art Projects delivered a program of site-specific artworks at Westfield Culver City, designed to strengthen community cultural life and enhance the quality of public spaces.

Local emerging artists and high-profile international artists developed commissions for what was Westfield USA’s first integrated art program.

Required by government policy to contribute a percentage of the development budget to the community, Westfield Culver City has become the United States’ first Westfield shopping center to realize the potential for local community engagement through the integration of considered public art. Supported by the collaboration of local curators and council representatives, the original, permanent installations not only create new family gathering spaces and build community identity; they also add lasting value to the development itself.

The commissions, situated at three key points in the center and transcending multiple floor-levels, are designed to engage visitors in shaping their own personal experience of place:

FAMILY ART PARK, JEFF KOPP

Family art park Punctuation Station, designed by local artist Jeff Kopp, has already become a memorable destination within the center.  The forms of oversized punctuation marks are thoroughly integrated into the mall, activating a range of interesting spaces and encouraging open, inventive play.

INTERIOR LOUNGE, DAVID TRUBRIDGE

Neptune’s Necklace by New Zealander David Trubridge combines spiraling forms of lighting and seating to become the energetic centerpiece of the plaza. A unique environment with bespoke artistic elements, this lounge area provides a hub for social engagement and a sanctuary for rest and re-invigoration. The sculptural seat elements are hand-carved from solid blocks of New Zealand timber (taken from trees felled in a fire), adding to the space the warmth of organic materials and a tactile connection with nature.

NORTH WEST ENTRY COURT, CHRIS DOYLE

The final component, Culver City Currency is a contemporary mobile by New Yorker Chris Doyle. It displays lenticular lightboxes which shift as they move between portraits of people and pictures of architecture from the local area.