Back in October we joked that SCI-Arc's new graduation pavilion, the League of Shadows, looked like something designed by Wayne Enterprises. Seems we weren't the only ones. Today's LA Times describes the structure as "an enormous bat with wings" before explaining that the name, though inspired by the similarly named Batman baddies, actually refers to "the pavilion's ability to block the L.A. sun." Based in a railroad freight depot on the Arts District/Little Tokyo border since 2001, SCI-Arc has never had a good location for big school events, and has for years held graduations under student-designed temporary structures in its parking lot. Now with funding secured, the League of Shadows looks set to host its first graduation in 2013. The new pavilion--which it's hoped will last four or five years--was designed by faculty member Marcelo Spina and his wife Georgina Huljich (they're partners in Silver Lake architecture firm Patterns). The pair beat out three other SCI-Arc faculty members in a design competition. Spina hopes the pavilion will be an "institutional beacon, a kind of marquee for the school's presence in downtown." The 50-foot-high, 110-foot-wide steel and fabric structure will sit in the parking lot, right near the Fourth Street Bridge at Merrick Street; no word yet on what shape the pavilion will project onto the sky when the black and turquoise structure is illuminated at night.
SCI-Arc students, who will help to construct the pavilion, sound pretty positive about the project in spite of the expected noise from bridge traffic. The Times also quotes neighborhood activist and fan of the project Jonathan Jerald, who hopes the League of Shadows "will become an icon not just for SCI-Arc but also an icon for the community."
· L.A. architecture school is poised to spread its wings [LAT]
· SCI-Arc's Shadowy Graduation Pavilion, Art of the Orange Line [Curbed LA]
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