Los Angeles, CA
145,000 sf
Office, retail, garden courtyard, amenity deck, below grade parking
2021
This 145,000 sf new creative office development is located on a steeply-sloped site and prominent transit hub in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. Originally a windowless warehouse used for community swap meets, the new development aims to reinvigorate the neighborhood by providing a unique office environment for next-generation creative tenants, while offering the community a public landscape experience in a high-density urban setting.
A welcoming entry draws visitors upward, with a prominent central stair that connects Spring Street up to High Street. The design splits the building into two sections, with a tiered vertical garden courtyard between the office wings to provide sectional variety that breaks down the building’s scale.
Bradbury Building
The historic Bradbury Building in Los Angeles plays a significant role in the project's design and materiality, with its use of wood and steel. Known for its extraordinary skylit atriums and walkways, the building provides a unique variety of vertical connections and transparency.
Oneonta Gorge
Filtered light, textured walls, and a sense of discovery, are themes derived from Oneonta Gorge in Oregon. The mossy canyon is represented in the design with tactile concrete panel, heavy landscaping, aggregate textures, and mass timber sourced from this region.
The building is split into two wings with a tiered vertical garden courtyard at the center, providing an indoor/outdoor landscape experience.
Building section
Working with Field Operations, the landscape design is intended to bridge the gap between indoor and outdoor, and fully embrace the Los Angeles climate by maximizing outdoor area. The open-air circulation spaces and courtyards, along with private balconies and a shared rooftop amenity deck, provide layers of outdoor connections to various users throughout the building.
Landscaped courtyards on each level offer views of the city (rendering courtesy of Field Operations)
Rooftop amenity deck (rendering courtesy of Field Operations)
Typical office level
Hybrid CLT Design
With the goal of pushing the boundaries of mass timber design at scale, the development is one of the first major Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) office buildings in Los Angeles. The unique hybrid structural system combines 5-ply CLT and concrete slab, with exposed steel columns and beams that account for the building’s gravity and seismic loads. Exposed timber panels cantilever over the balconies, and add a natural, warm aesthetic to the interior.
The development connects to the surrounding Chinatown neighborhood, with a ground level pavilion of retail pods which embrace the history of the District. The building’s façade imitates light patterns filtered through a dense forest; and the spacial arrangement of the gardens, wood inlays, patterns, and textures, echo the character of the region.
Bradbury Building
The historic Bradbury Building in Los Angeles plays a significant role in the project's design and materiality, with its use of wood and steel. Known for its extraordinary skylit atriums and walkways, the building provides a unique variety of vertical connections and transparency.
Oneonta Gorge
Filtered light, textured walls, and a sense of discovery, are themes derived from Oneonta Gorge in Oregon. The mossy canyon is represented in the design with tactile concrete panel, heavy landscaping, aggregate textures, and mass timber sourced from this region.
The building is split into two wings with a tiered vertical garden courtyard at the center, providing an indoor/outdoor landscape experience.
Building section
Landscaped courtyards on each level offer views of the city (rendering courtesy of Field Operations)
Rooftop amenity deck (rendering courtesy of Field Operations)
Typical office level
