Tom Wiscombe Architecture’s Sunset Spectacular harnesses aerospace engineering for a 21st-century billboard - Facades+, Premier Conference on High-Performance Building Enclosures.

artwork of an explosion in a forest scene on the LED billboard of wiscombe's sunset spectacular — Sunset Spectacular, showing artwork by The Propeller Group. *Volatile Landscapes*, 2021 (Courtesy of Orange Barrel Media)

3 cranes installing the aluminum panels of the structure — Cranes installing the aluminum panels for the shard-like obelisk that is the Sunset Spectacular (Courtesy Tom Wiscombe Architecture)

artwork of a concrete street shown on the LED billboard of wiscombe's sunset spectacular — Sunset Spectacular, showing artwork by The Propeller Group. *Volatile Landscapes*, 2021 (Courtesy of Orange Barrel Media)

diagram of the super components of the structure — Diagram of the super-components of the Sunset Spectacular (Courtesy Tom Wiscombe Architecture)

image of a model kit box of the structure which has an image of the structure — Tom Wiscombe Architects conceived of the design as a model kit. (Courtesy Tom Wiscombe Architecture)

models of the various components that make up the structure — Three-dimensional clusters, or “superstructural chunks,” were configured to create the project’s shape-shifting form. Mechanical and electrical systems run through chases embedded within the plate steel modules and carry enough voltage to power the multimedia display. (Courtesy Tom Wiscombe Architecture)

Los Angeles’s Sunset Strip is a charming hodgepodge where buildings old and new jostle for space with palm trees and rotating billboards. Adding to this riotous scene is a new urban marker every bit as attention-grabbing as Hollywood blockbusters and architectural kitsch. At 67 feet tall, the West Hollywood Sunset Spectacular is somewhere between a billboard and a Transformer.

ManufacturerNorthern Manufacturing & Shower Doors
ArchitectTom Wiscombe Architecture
Structural EngineerWalter P Moore
Electrical EngineerGlumac
Media Designer and EngineerDisplay Devices
Construction ManagerArbib Construction
Orange Barrel Media
LocationWest Hollywood, California
Steel FabricatorNorthern Manufacturing
Steel DetailerDBM Vircon
SystemCustom plate steel modules Custom LED video screens
ProductsBauer Electric Services

Massive multimedia displays beam out advertisements every few seconds, while oversize stainless-steel modules give the impression that the shardlike obelisk could suddenly click into gear.

Local firm Tom Wiscombe Architecture (TWA) developed the project alongside Orange Barrel Media for a 2016 city-sponsored competition, fending off stiff challenges from the likes of Zaha Hadid Architects and Gensler. In the several exploded diagrams that TWA prepared for its submission entry, the assembly of the individual building pieces mirrors that of a model set. “It’s really the only kind of architectural representation that I trust,” said founder Tom Wiscombe.

That playfulness, however, belies the unorthodox construction techniques, advanced design-assist processes, and complex systems integration marshaled for the project’s realization.

Early on, structural engineering firm Walter P Moore determined that a standard frame-and-skin enclosure system would be too expensive and instead suggested welding TWA’s componentry together in a process akin to aircraft construction. Its fabrication fell to Northern Manufacturing, an Ohio-based maker of industrial equipment, with construction modeling firm DBM Vircon acting as a go-between. (Project detailing was key to avoiding errors in prefabrication that could prevent the components, each one entirely unique, from aligning on-site.) The Los Angeles office of MEP engineers Glumac devised an intensive electrical system capable of powering 1,500 square feet of digital tile, three high-powered laser video projectors, and multiple sound systems.

architectural section of the structure — Multi-ton super components compose the project’s structure and facade. The individual components were welded together following the principals of monocoque fabrication (Courtesy of Tom Wiscombe Architecture)

The entire enterprise breached the boundaries of the architectural, passing into the infrastructural: Altogether, 100 tons of stainless steel went into the construction. The components—or, per Wiscombe, “superstructure chunks”—were loaded onto 770-foot-long super-load lowrider trailers for the 2,300-mile trek west. Each piece arrived on-site in West Hollywood with a loose back panel that allowed them to be bolted together on their perimeter faces. (That connection was subsequently concealed.) A 90-foot-tall industrial crane hoisted the “chunks” into place; arranged in three towering panels, they form a cocoon around a pedestrian-accessible central void. Suspended overhead is a sculptural entity that appears to stabilize the heaving mass.

image of construction site of the new structure. Image includes a crane, cars, and trees at sunset spectacular — West Hollywood Sunset Spectacular is a public-private partnership between Orange Barrel Media and the City of West Hollywood and seeks to establish a new form of billboard for the 21st century (Courtesy Tom Wiscombe Architecture)

For Wiscombe, the project forcefully challenged industry paradigms. “It is time that we really take apart how we build, what kinds of elements are used to build, who builds it, and how we document it,” he said. “One thing that I’m really proud of on this project is that we didn’t accept anything that was given on any of those fronts, we are kind of working as skunkworks, and there is a bit of mystery shrouding what is being done. I view that as a mode of innovation.”

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