Firm： LEVER Architecture

Type： Commercial › Office

STATUS： Under Construction

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SIZE： 25,000 sqft - 100,000 sqft

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. The new development will provide 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 New 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. 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.

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 3 and 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 spatial arrangement of the gardens, wood inlays, patterns, and textures, echo the character of the region.