Allergan Pharmaceutical Headquarters, Irvine, Calif., 1973
1973
The Blurock Partnership
The Allergan Building in Irvine, CA was designed by William Blurock, founder of the collaborative architecture firm tBP/Architecture, Inc. Blurock, who graduated from USC in 1947, built an active international practice focused educational facilities, while also gaining commissions for commercial structures and corporate campuses. The firm was hired to design a distinctive headquarters for Allergan, a pharmaceutical company that had its start in Los Angeles and, by the 1970s, was an active part of the region’s scientific community. Blurock, then called William Blurock Associates, designed the structure as a series of alternating vertical elements in red brick and black glass, recalling a sleeker version of Louis Kahn’s 1965 Richards Medical Research Laboratories.
Wayne Thom photographed the building from a short distance, with the camera tilted ever so slightly upward to emphasize the building’s verticality. The structure is framed by a curving driveway and identifying signage on left and right, but the emphasis is placed on a dramatic sky that occupies the majority of the composition. Wind-swept clouds seemingly radiate from all sides of the structure. On the interior, Thom captures a lone receptionist under a concrete waffle slab ceiling, the lobby aglow in warm light and copper tones.
References:
Hannah Madans and Orange County Register, "Allergan: A Brief History," Orange County Register, November 17, 2014. Web.
Brittany Woolsey, "Newport Beach Architect Dies at 90," Los Angeles Times, June 20, 2012. Web.