LAWA Consolidated Rental Car Facility (ConRAC)

Los Angeles, CA

The Master Plan for the Consolidated Rental Car Facility provides a framework for the future build-out of the ConRAC and its context within the project site of Manchester Square. The Master Plan acknowledges the importance of concurrent planning of three separate transport components that will contribute to the success of the ConRAC which includes:

1. The Automated People Mover (APM)

2. Intermodal Transportation Facility (ITF) East and

3. The Metro Airport Extension Project featuring two stations along Aviation at Century Boulevard and 96th Street. While the specific design and siting of these components are outside of the scope of this project and are subject to change. It is the intent of the Master Plan to include these components with the planning for the overall site to best integrate them into the ConRAC and surrounding parcels.

RAW’s contribution is to transform and expand the practical ConRAC functions into The Landing at LAX, a visually striking and successfully programmed regional destination. RAW’s effort is two-fold. First, master-planning work proposes several marketable alternatives for the three development sites. In each, distinctive place-making is achieved through different land-use combinations, building types, street frontages and pedestrian-friendly networks. Retail, hotel, office, conference, and campus uses are proposed in various forms, a constant in all schemes is a framework of large open spaces: two dramatically landscaped parks, and a pair of active, visually striking public plazas (one serving bikes, the other pedestrians) facing one another across Aviation Blvd.

Second, the conceptualization of bold architecture is proposed to house two major terminal facilities: one a hub for multiple transit lines, the other a central terminus serving the entire rental car complex for LAX. Sweeping forms and environmentally sound materials constitute the visual language of these two related but distinct structures-each of which will welcome thousands of visitors every day.

Client:                    Los Angeles World Airports

Cost:                      $925 Million

Services/Scope:    Land-use planning, building configuration, exterior façade design