A generous grant of $400,000 from ArtPlace - a collection of 12 leading foundations, 8 federal agencies and an anonymous donor - to the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) has enabled the institution to initiate the planning, design and construction of two arts venues on its downtown LA campus.

The first will be an indoor amphitheatre for lectures, performances, symposia, film airings and community meetings, and has been referred to as the ‘Hispanic Steps’. The modest rise-seating form will be partnered by an outdoor pavilion with the capacity for 750 people which will act as a sun-shelter and communal gathering place for the school’s students.

“The transformative grant from Artplace gives SCI-Arc a unique opportunity to extend its conceptual design voice by building the 'Hispanic Steps' and the new Outdoor Pavilion for our students, faculty, and the surrounding community,” says Director of SCI-Arc, Eric Owen Moss. “If architecture, as SCI-Arc has always proclaimed, speaks by building, the Artplace contribution affords us two special construction moments to ratify what we preach.”