The La Kretz Botany Building at UCLA: A Blend of History, Architecture, and Botanical Harmony

The La Kretz Botany Building at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) stands as a testament to architectural vision, historical preservation, and the seamless integration of nature and built environment. Designed by the pioneering architect Paul R. Williams in 1957 and completed in 1959, the building has undergone thoughtful renovation, most notably in 2017, to honor Williams' original intent while updating the space for modern use. This article explores the history, architecture, and recent transformations of this iconic UCLA building.

Paul R. Williams: An Architect Ahead of His Time

Paul R. Williams (1894-1980) was a trailblazing African-American architect who left an indelible mark on the Los Angeles landscape. As the first African-American licensed member west of the Mississippi and a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, Williams designed over 3,000 structures, each showcasing his elegant composition and perfect proportions. His portfolio includes homes for celebrities like Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball, demonstrating his ability to create fashionable and functional spaces. Williams was known for designing buildings that complemented their landscapes, rather than imposing upon them, making him the ideal choice for the Botany Building, situated next to the Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden.

The Original Vision: Integrating Nature and Architecture

Commissioned solely to his firm in 1957, the Botany Building was Williams' first project by a prominent institution. Williams envisioned a space where the natural world and the built environment could exist in synergistic conversation. He aimed to make the gardens an integral part of the building's design by placing ribbon windows along the south facade and implementing a "sight-seers' deck" that physically overlooks the tree canopies. The building was designed to harmonize with the adjacent Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden, an established garden located on a hilly site with a natural ravine and creek bed. This garden has made significant contributions to the discipline of botany. As a part of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) department, the historic building has been part of UCLA’s long-standing commitment to modern research and teaching.

The La Kretz Botany Building: A Hub for Botanical Studies

Named the La Kretz Botany Building in tribute to Morton La Kretz '48, who generously funded the latest renovation, the building houses a large collection of plant specimens in its Herbarium and provides views of the Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden. The building serves as a vital resource for the university's Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, fostering research and education in botanical sciences.

The Lost Mural: Realizing Williams' Vision

UCLA retained the building’s original plans, which included a drawing for an unrealized lobby mosaic. A key element of Williams' original design was a plant-motif mosaic intended for the lobby. However, this mural was never realized during the initial construction. In 2017, as the structure was set for renovation, the Getty Research Institute and the USC School of Architecture acquired Williams’ original hand-drafted drawings, previously thought to have been destroyed by fire. University leadership approved creation of the lost mural as part of the renovation. At last, the architect’s vision would be beautifully brought to life.

The 2017 Renovation: A Thoughtful Transformation

In 2017, Los Angeles firm CO Architects was awarded the renovation of UCLA’s La Kretz Botany Building lobby. Understanding the significance of the Botany Building and its architect, CO approached the lobby renovation with thorough research to remain true to Williams’ original design intent while introducing thoughtful updates. The team sought to design a point of arrival that retained the building’s historic character.

Reimagining the Lobby

CO envisioned the La Kretz Botany Building’s lobby as a seamless threshold from the campus to the gardens, quiet in its design and materials, but bold and clear in its intentions. In order to reinforce this idea and bring more natural light into the space, the new design extends views to the garden from the lobby by removing a solid fire partition that divides the lobby and the west stair well. To further highlight the extended views and the connection from the entry to the garden beyond, a wood linear-grille ceiling extends from the exterior entry canopy toward the stair windows. The reimagined lobby replaces the exit stair’s solid walls with a roll-down fire shutter to create unobstructed views from the front door through to the garden beyond, enhancing visual connections that were previously hidden from view.

The Mosaic Mural: A Modern Interpretation

The centerpiece of the renovation is the realization of Williams' original mosaic design. The 285-square-foot glass mosaic begins outside and snakes in through the building’s entrance, creating a seamless transition from outside to inside. Because Williams’ drawing didn’t specify colors, CO Architects painstakingly researched his other projects to identify hues he might have chosen had the piece been realized. Designer Lois Lee carefully studied the design in the original documents and worked to reinterpret the original sketch utilizing ¾” x ¾” glass mosaic tiles.

The team researched other Williams projects and even had lunch at his Beverly Hills Hotel, pulling color ideas from the banana-leaf wallpaper. Its design is reminiscent of the banana-leaf motif on the signature wallpaper inside the nearby Beverly Hills Hotel, where Williams did extensive work and for which he designed the iconic logo now recognized around the world. As you walk into the building, the mural foreshadows what’s inside.

Mosaic specialists Artaic helped finalize the 14 colors used for the mosaic’s more than 72,000 glass tiles, modeled on a computerized grid. Artaic translated CO’s design with their closest standard colors. Fourteen different tile colors are used in the project. The coordination effort included a lot of back and forth, selecting the right cool hues and tile size. Wrapping the mosaic around the wall’s corners further creates a feeling of bringing the outdoors into the building.

Read also: Navigating Tech Breadth at UCLA

Historical Research and Inspiration

The mosaic’s original black-and-white line drawing didn’t specify colors, size, or type of glass tile. Informed speculation on Williams’ intended colors and design came from additional research. Mosaics were popular in Midcentury Modern Los Angeles. One of the most notable mosaic muralists was artist and architect Millard Sheets. Sheets is best known for his large-scale mosaics for the Home Savings and Loan Association branches across Southern California. Additionally, Williams’ A-frame design for the Guardian Angel Cathedral in Las Vegas showcases a large mural mosaic by Edith and Isabel Piczek.

Williams possibly had branding in mind when he designed the plant-motif mosaic. By realizing the piece on the non-brick wall and extending it through the entrance, the mosaic graphically identifies the La Kretz Botany Building to passersby. Studying the mosaic murals in Los Angeles offered insights into the genre’s period palettes, but the best color cues for the mosaic’s plant motif were found a few blocks from UCLA.

The colors extracted from the iconic wallpaper were eye-dropped into a digital grid, using Williams’ line drawing as a template for what eventually covered an area encompassing 72,796 tiles.

Subsequent Renovations and Upgrades

The new lobby’s enthusiastic reception prompted UCLA to commission CO Architects to renovate the rest of the four-story La Kretz Botany Building, adhering to guidelines for buildings eligible for listing on the National and California Registers of Historic Places in collaboration with historical consultants Page & Turnbull. Completion is targeted for late 2021. While the exterior upgrades included new, high performance windows with other touch-ups such as hiding previously exposed utility pipes, the interior design greatly improves building transparency, provides views, and adds a new accessible entrance to the adjacent Botanical Garden, in addition to upgraded laboratory teaching and collaboration spaces for professors, students, and researchers.

“When rethinking the interior layout, a major driver in the design was to pull the outside in and the inside out. Connecting students and researchers to the views of the neighboring botanical garden” recalled Benjamin Bye, Senior Associate at CO Architects and the La Kretz senior designer, “We reorganized the building program, moving the teaching laboratories down to the ground floor to connect students directly to the botanical garden where they conduct field research and collect plant specimen. Adding a new lobby on the lower level of the building also provided an accessible entrance connecting users directly to the gardens.”

Read also: Understanding UCLA Counselors

A Lasting Legacy

The La Kretz Botany Building’s mosaic and renovated lobby breathe new life into a space that was previously used as a thoroughfare to one that celebrates the architect and architecture. The project’s finishing touch is a bronze plaque honoring the architect. A new bronze plaque near the mosaic explains Williams’s legacy, allowing passersby “to learn about a Black architect by just walking through the space,” says architect Rachel J. Bascombe, who is working on the renovation of another Williams building on campus. The La Kretz Botany Building renovation is one of our more drastic before-and-afters when it comes to the interiors.

tags: #UCLA #botany #building #history #and #architecture