A former printing and distribution facility for the LA Times, The Press embarks on a new life reimagined as a creative campus.
The reinvention of this building will embrace natural light and views while preserving nonstandard floor-to-floor heights and much of the existing structure in a cost-conscious but provocative manner. The result is a rich and humanized campus, and a living monument to our ever-evolving culture. Building on this foundation, the project recently expanded to include a new, standalone research and development building.
The Press’ design interventions are selectively subtractive. Reinforcing the notion of ‘ruin’ through the partial destruction of the existing building allows for the surgical removal of roof panels and concrete wall panels, exposing the skeletal structure.
Retaining defining elements such as the canopies and monolithic concrete walls celebrates the character of the industrial space.
Indoor-outdoor relationships become a pervasive component to tenant space. Loading docks and canopy overhangs become continuous back porches - opportunities for refection, fitness, and collaboration.
Landscape ties together the site and structure – as trees and plants unexpectedly pierce through canopy openings or the roofs of former mechanical rooms, suggesting a ruin recaptured by nature, signaling new life.
Space for machines becomes space for humans - leviathan volumes for printing presses become cathedral-like workplaces.
An open-air atrium is inserted into the central press line, enhancing the arrival experience and prompting chance encounters as circulatory paths cross.
A Skycut slices across the building to introduce daylight, access and create a pedestrian path through the site.