Westwood, CA

The area of Hollywood east of 101  freeway has always played second class to “Real Hollywood” to the west.  Recent redevelopment efforts have had a big effect in revitalizing the area especially between the Hollywood Freeway and Vermont and several mixed use projects have either been built, are under construction or entitled and ready to go.  atelier V : architecture (www.atelierv.com) has been engaged to design an 80-room boutique hotel in the area contributing to further revitalization of the Hollywood Blvd. corridor east of the freeway.  ”The area is zoned R-5 restricting all hotel development to lower densities per the Vermont/Western Specific Plan, while the proximity to the Metro and the dense urban fabric calls for higher density development, this is an issue that we will be struggling with the Planning department on”  Says Mark Vaghei, AIA, atelier V’s Principal in Charge.

Westwood, Ca

Avanti cafe has been serving Pasadena residents with one of the best original wood fired pizzas anywhere in the nation since 1986.  In fact their pies have been named number one pizza in Pasadena for 17 years in a row.  When the Owner/Proprietor Bobby and Mina Ghofranian finally thought of opening a second location due to popular demand, they came to atelier V : architecture to design it for them.  ”Bobby is what I call a tireless warrior, when he came to us we all wondered what took him so long ! their food had been so good for so many years that an expansion seemed almost inevitable “ says Mark Vaghei, AIA, atelier V’s Principal in Charge.  This time however, Bobby Ghofranian wanted to take his legendary Italian fair to a new level.  He purchased the old Spring Garden Chinese restaurant at 187 Sierra Madre, an old establishment owners of which had retired.  ” The existing building was a a 50 year old tired looking triangular mess of a structure, we basically had to gut it down to its old tired frame and start all over”  Says Mark Vaghei, AIA.

Westwood, California

Back in January(2013), we published an article under the heading: “Dialogue of two homes”. That was when the design process for the two speculative residences on Bishop lane in Menlo Park, California had been completed.  Well, 10 months later, they are finished and sold at record prices.  “We always thought Design sells, we also knew that Modern when done with care has its followers, but never in our wildest dreams did we think that these homes would sell in under 3 weeks, this confirmed our view that Modern is in play” Says: Mark Vaghei, AIA, atelier V’s Design Principal.  Now, its not a hidden fact that the housing market has been sizzling, but there had to be other factors in play besides a hot market to sell these homes.  “Setting ourselves apart with a modern language while respecting the context made all the difference in the world!;  in the first open house, we had people falling in love on the first sight, there was nothing more satisfying than that!”  Says Mark Vaghei, AIA.