A closer look into the "Wilshire Tower" by PAR, from SHELTER at the A+D Museum

What if there was a gleaming, 80-floor residential tower haphazardly placed along L.A.'s Wilshire Boulevard? That's what the Platform for Architecture + Research — or PAR — imagined for the "Shelter: Rethinking How We Live in Los Angeles" exhibition, currently at the A+D Museum until November 6. "Shelter" has fun with the possibilities that Angelenos can live in their city. It also presents constructed and in-progress housing proposals that address L.A.'s evolving cityscape.

If you get a chance to stop by the A+D Museum anytime soon, you'll find PAR's "Wilshire Tower" among several other works by firms like Bureau Spectacular, Bestor Architecture, Michael Maltzan Architecture, OMA, MAD Architects, LA Más, and more.

Scroll down to find out more about the Wilshire Tower from PAR.

Project description:

"PAR proposes a new model of high-rise courtyard housing on the LACMA Tower site, integrated with mass transit, in the central cultural district of Los Angeles. The high rise tower is an important element within the contemporary metropolis. However, towers have come to be predominantly defined by their height and, as a type, have become anonymous."

"Typical residential towers, while successful in providing density, rarely provide living environments with individuality or access to nature, two qualities that are the essence of Los Angeles living. Our proposal acts against this endemic anonymity and repetitiveness of the recent past and puts forth a new model for the contemporary tower."

"Its aim is to achieve, despite its size, an individual and personal character comprised of a stack of individual houses in which each house is unique and identifiable with a direct connection to nature."

All images courtesy of PAR.

More project images in the thumbnail gallery below.