Judges' Comments
- N/A
Project Data:
Completion Date: 8/31/2018
Square Footage: 450000
Building Use: Retail, Entertainment, Health & Wellness
Location: Long Beach, CA
Project Description:
“The Stacks” is a purpose-driven urban center, anchored by a festival-style entertainment venue and usable green space in Long Beach, Calif. Its mission is focused on the rehabilitation of members of the local community in concert with creating an entertainment and retail venue for all. The Stacks will contain a women’s wellness center, dining and retail village, and performance venue to form a unique destination for the community’s diverse population.
The heart of the project is the wellness center, which will focus on healing for disadvantaged women through coaching, yoga, art and music. The wellness center will partner with community service providers to identify women-in-need of healing, coaching and opportunity. It will be open to the public and offer holistic healing
through personalized, guided programs.
The Stacks also contains a dining and retail village that will be built from repurposed shipping containers and other recycled materials. Long Beach is one of the largest shipping ports in the world and creating a destination around shipping containers is contextual, innovative and affordable. It’s currently less expensive for companies to buy new containers rather than ship containers back to the originating country, which has led to a surplus of empty containers. Creating a container village is eco-friendly and fast. The containers are framed structures and do not need additional supports, while also being mobile to allow for future flexibility. The result will be an outdoor urban center for the City of Long Beach and its residents. It will become a place to eat, drink and play in a uniquely designed outdoor space that induces happiness and includes a mix of local retailers and restaurants. Additionally, the project’s entertainment venue will be home to A-list performers, attracting visitors who crave an outdoor experience between LA and the OC.
The retail village will provide more than 600 employment opportunities via temporary and permanent positions for the community, while the wellness center will serve as a pipeline to employment by providing a fresh start and training for women. Participants in the wellness program will receive mentoring, life-skills training, and childcare if needed. The project will position Long Beach as a global leader offering a repeatable model of employment, healing and community integration.
The project’s greatest challenges will be zoning and financing. Since The Stacks is a purpose-driven project, traditional financing sources are likely not available. Much of the support will come through fundraising and local grants. Zoning will also be a challenge to provide necessary parking and retail services in conjunction with entrainment facilities within current zoning allowances. Given the challenge of rezoning, site selection was extremely limited in choosing a site able to develop a facility with these uses. The proposed site, which is situated in an industrial area south of Long Beach Airport, was selected to allow for the intended uses, straddling two zones to allow for the retail and entertainment venues.
The impact of this project will inspire a renewed sense of self-worth for residents and serve as a hub of community activity!
C.O.T.E. | Committee on the Environment
Submitted By: |
Tiffany Brown |
Design Architect: |
Gensler |
Associate Architect or Firm: |
Gensler |
Landscape Architect: |
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Owner / Developer: |
Long Beach Container Village |
Engineer: |
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General Contractor: |
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Consultant: |
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Photographer: |
The Stacks
Category
Inspire