{"id":268,"date":"2013-01-15T00:44:10","date_gmt":"2013-01-15T00:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendarees.com\/?p=268"},"modified":"2015-11-06T18:38:32","modified_gmt":"2015-11-06T18:38:32","slug":"lettuce-office-profile-the-eastsider-la-january-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/?p=268","title":{"rendered":"Lettuce Office Profile, The Eastsider LA, January 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Chung (left), Kara Bartelt and Nicolas Saez of Lettuce Office\/Photo courtesy Lettuce Office<\/em><\/p>\n

A unique project such as Occidental College\u2019s solar array<\/a> needed a unique design team, which the school found with Lettuce Office<\/a>, a small firm comprised of three principals, two whom live in Highland Park.<\/p>\n

Kara Bartelt and husband Michael Chung started Lettuce in 2004 with offices in Hollywood; they have since moved to downtown Los Angeles and added a third partner, Nico Saez. Bartelt and Chung have lived in Highland Park since 2006, having moved into the area because of \u201cthe great community and plenty of historic houses. We love seeing all the families walking their kids to school, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team jumped on the chance to create new thinking for Oxy\u2019s installation of ground-based solar panels rather than the utilitarian designs that are typical for large scale solar projects. Bartelt, an adjunct associate professor at USC\u2019s School of Architecture, is fascinated on the integration of technology and architecture in the environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, this [project] was a perfect example of that blending,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

First and foremost, the team wanted the design to be pleasing to the eye from whatever direction it was viewed. After the swooping curve pattern was approved, they painstakingly created intricate renderings and canvassed various neighborhoods to see how the finished product would be seen. That hard work is paying off, thinks Bartelt.<\/p>\n

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While some of the more than 5,000 panels are installed above a canopy over a campus parking lot, the most eye-catching element of the Occidental array will be the panels that are mounted two to three feet above the ground and\u00a0 hug the topography a hillside\u00a0 in a curving design based on a hysteresis loop<\/a>, a mathematical expression that describes the result of an alternating magnetic field applied to ferromagnetic material.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust the other day, I came up Ave 49 from York and had a good view of it,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s not a typical array; it\u2019s more art than array.\u201d<\/p>\n

Involved in the project for now three years, the team meets at the construction site every two weeks to make sure that the 20 x 30 foot panels are being installed according to plans. Joining them is Oxy\u2019s Professor of Physics Daniel Snowden-Ifft, who has been involved in the project nearly since its beginnings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have walkie talkies and go back and forth saying, \u2018Tilt it to the left a bit, now up, to the right,\u2019\u201d says Bartelt about getting the angles just right.<\/p>\n

Right now, the firm is active in residential and business designs as well as graphics for branding and marketing. While the Oxy solar array is scheduled to be completed this spring, Bartelt says the team would welcome more solar projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t take much to make a big impact,\u201d she says. \u201cI can\u2019t wait to when that final panel is placed and it\u2019s all done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Architecture and the environment…two of my favorite things to explore! The team at Lettuce Office explains to me the concept behind their new solar array design for Occidental College.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-268","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-the-eastsider-la","9":"post-with-thumbnail","10":"post-with-thumbnail-large"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=268"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":694,"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions\/694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brendarees.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}