Proudly flaunting the colours of its community’s flag, the LGBT Center in Los Angeles now boasts a fitting meeting place where the venue’s residents, staff members and neighbourhood dwellers can sit back and relax over a coffee and bites. Aptly called Liberation Coffee House, it occupies a prominent location on the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and North McCadden Place, on the ground floor of a building which also forms an integral part of the Anita May Rosenstein Campus site. The café occupies a 1,600 sq.ft. (approx. 159 sqm.) ground floor unit of a striking concrete and glass structure, designed by architecture practices Leong Leong and KFA, and which opened last year. As said, the interior design takes cues from the pride banner, and it does so in an unapologetic way.
Los Angeles-based design practice ORA, responsible for the design, has captured the flag’s vibrant colours by way of a series of overlapping shear fabric panels which shield the harsh sun light, creating a gradient of colour reminiscent of California’s spectacular sunsets. Curved walls, created through panelling, and a matching sculpted ceiling, frame an open space in which a service counter clad in a red and white grid is the sole fixture. A variety of seating arrangements surround the service counter, and one section it even doubles as a gallery space. The menu at Liberation Coffee House is quite elaborate and lists various coffee options using Verve Coffee beans, although tea concoctions are just as plentiful, in addition to sandwiches, salads and hot bites.
Liberation Coffee House
6725 Santa Monica Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90038
Telephone: +1 323 9938954
Mon-Fri 7.30-2.30
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
