Project Data:
Completion Date: 11/1/2021
Square Footage: 439224
Building Use: Creative offices
Project Description:
A former Los Angeles Times printing plant is reimagined as a 439,224 sf creative campus. The midcentury Orange County facility, vacant since 2010 along with an even-longer-abandoned rail line and gas station, is reincarnated as a multidisciplinary workspace with a dining Canteen and a public rail trail.
Fundamental challenges stemmed from the juxtaposition of its original purpose and future vision. Portions of the 1,150’-long continuous complex are “selectively subtracted” to achieve habitability while retaining its industrial past. Spaces for machines become spaces for people.
Precise cuts through precast concrete walls and roofing bring in fresh air, daylight and views. This subtraction exposes the beauty of the existing, reviving what was neglected and inviting the landscape to enter in through and around the campus.
A thoughtful, intentional balance between preservation and growth distinguishes this complex adaptive reuse. The design celebrates both material and organic markers of time. Paint chips, rail spurs and conveyor belts are left as is; an existing tree is placed to grow through the structure itself—hinting at history, site and context.
By providing unique office space in an underserved market, one client goal was to bring jobs closer to where current and potential future employees live. The revitalized buildings and site create a campus with unique amenities, including a landscaped park in an otherwise nature-starved corner of Costa Mesa.
The most sustainable aspects of the project are its scale as an adaptive reuse project and the utilization of nearly every aspect of its previous use. Among such projects, the campus design is notable for the degree to which it preserves and upgrades the existing structure with minimal intervention, extending the lifespan of a local landmark beyond even its newly repurposed use today.
A second building, currently under construction, will provide approximately 185,000 sf of additional R&D facilities.
Firm Name: Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects
Completion Date: 11/1/2021
Square Footage: 439224
Building Use: Creative offices
Location: Costa Mesa, CA
Project Description:
DESIGN FOR INTEGRATION
In Costa Mesa lies the former auxiliary Los Angeles Times Printing Press facility. A complex of concrete panels upon steel frames were erected through the second half of the last century, enduring beyond the rise of the digital age. With the removal of the printing presses, these largely abandoned structures persist as ruins, a testament to an earlier era of information consumption.
Unable to return to its original utility, The Press embarks on a new life as a creative office.
Many of its design interventions are subtractive. Reinforcing the notion of ‘ruin’ through the partial destruction of the existing building allows for the once resolute mass to dissolve into its surroundings, expanding upon the Southern California vernacular. Landscape ties site and structure - suggesting a ruin recaptured by nature. Subtraction also allows for otherwise hidden architectural moments to be discovered. Clerestory windows cut into the high volume of a previous press line to fill the space with light. Any additive elements deliberately contrast to clarify old and new.
The client consciously aimed to avoid the self-contained seclusion of a corporate office park. From the onset, the campus was designed as a multi-disciplinary, multi-tenant space. When ultimately leased to a single tenant, they too were attracted to the possibility of interactivity among a range of internal departments.
The “selective subtraction” approach prioritized public walkways that would prompt different practitioners to literally cross paths with one another, cross-pollinating and sharing knowledge.
The design brings the building history to the forefront of each user’s experience. Occupying a site of almost 20 acres, green space and parking amplify users’ understanding of the history through the preservation of an existing rail spur, a former filling station and hundreds of feet of deep column-free loading dock covered with an expansive canopy. Former conveyer belts are preserved in place, passing through gardens and conference rooms, marking a moment in time when bundled newspapers were loaded onto trucks and rail cars for distribution throughout Orange County.
DESIGN FOR EQUITABLE COMMUNITIES
Spared from demolition, the plant's revival enjoyed acclaim from community members and even passers-by during construction. A source of local intrigue from its onset as an isolated industrial site, the building’s design ethos centered on how to open up such a secretive, monolithic space.
Much of the structure is raised on a plinth, 4 ft above the surrounding site. To meet accessibility needs while preserving existing character, new steel ramps and stairs were sited within the landscape. Additionally, interior floor levels were selectively dropped to improve outdoor access.
The site reintroduces itself to the rest of the neighborhood with the reincorporation of an existing rail line into a bike and pedestrian trail. This rail trail is an early component of one of Orange County’s most ambitious master plans to date. As part of a master plan agreement with the adjacent city of Santa Ana, a continuation of the pedestrian and bike trail is currently under construction.
DESIGN FOR ECOSYSTEMS
In the spirit of reuse and recycling, a number of mature trees were relocated within the campus to not only preserve what had been, but what was to come. Many of the trees that either still exist or were relocated signify a profound viewer experience, taking advantage of the selective subtraction of the hardscape and building to let in the fresh breath of natural moments. Openings in the loading dock canopy allow for tree canopies to poke through, a poetic intersection of new life with the industrial past.
DESIGN FOR ECONOMY
Given the existing facility’s mass, the goal was to maintain the beauty of cavernous “cathedral” spaces while maximizing efficiency of space. The team worked closely with the structural engineer, evaluating the integrity of the existing structure to understand the most effective ways of creating various openings and new mezzanine levels, selectively removing some elements and preserving others. All milestones included cost estimates to parse the budgetary impact of each move. Cost reduction exercises focused on maintaining design integrity while providing needed spaces.
In addition to the general flexibility of a creative office and multi-use development able to accommodate a wide variety of disciplines and industries, specific areas including the Canteen and park area are all flexible, programmable space.
DESIGN FOR WELL-BEING
Every move – the selective removal of concrete panels to allow for light and views, the sequence of each entry, the adjacency of every program element – was modeled and reviewed with daylight and wind simulations. Natural light and access to views also drove liberal incorporation of operable windows and inserted balconies throughout the interior. The Rail Trail provides a scenic walking path right on campus that not only promotes recreation and “thinking while walking” opportunities, but also connects the campus to the great community with the publicly accessible amenity.
DESIGN FOR RESOURCES
Material selection stressed selective subtraction and minimal addition. Glass fills newly opened corners to accentuate existing elements. Every new material was chosen based on how it would age, embracing the march of time and its residual quirks.
Avoidance of newness for its own sake informed use of thermally modified pine wood which is both relatively low-impact due to fast growth, will age to echo the original building’s patina.
Three varieties of Radiata Pine decking were used throughout, including the open-air lobby, entry court stairs, park and outdoor decks and seating.
DESIGN FOR CHANGE
The overall aesthetic vision embraces history and imperfection, patinas and paint chips and all. By incorporating the concept of wabi sabi – the idea of beauty being imperfect and incomplete – the renovation has a texture and character that hints at the past and creates a dialogue about site and context. The project maintains a local history in a region that is still developing a story about its past, present, and future.
Structural elements, meanwhile, celebrate the original facility’s strongest constituent parts, elevating utilitarian steel beams into dramatic spatial framing devices without relegating them to the realm of the decorative.
Such an approach not only anticipates but celebrates the process of material aging and organic growth. An existing ficus tree at the site was transplanted into the open-air lobby, with the expectation that it would grow through all the structures and guardrails, eventually forming a natural canopy.
Resiliency upgrades address two primary building threats: flooding, due to the flat and low-lying nature of the site, and earthquakes. All new structural elements meet current building code requirements for earthquakes, and areas that previously did not have been upgraded to ensure the safety of all occupants and the resiliency of the buildings. With regard to flooding threats, new site grading directs water away from the buildings and into landscaped stormwater retention basins and bioswales.
DESIGN FOR DISCOVERY
The factory line and adjacent site based on its sheer monumental scale is rich with opportunities for happenstance interactions as well as quieter moments of discovery and serendipity.
An exterior ‘Atrium’ is inserted into the central press line, providing casual workspace and chance encounters as circulatory paths cross. From certain spots, conveyor treads spanning the former press are visible in their entirety, a vantage point that would have once been mechanically impossible. A ‘Skycut’ slices across the building to create pedestrian paths through the site. A former mechanical penthouse becomes a hideaway rooftop bar. Loading docks and canopy overhangs become continuous back porches - opportunities for reflection, fitness, and collaboration. Leviathan volumes for printing presses become cathedral-like workplaces.
Not unlike a cathedral is a modern variation on stained glass that enjoys its own “golden hour:” a transparent Southwestern-themed color field mural, when sunlit at just the right angle, is projected upwards onto the walls to create the illusion of continuity with the sky above.
Though conceptualized years earlier, the adaptive re-use’s key concepts happen to align with the ideal of a “post-pandemic workplace:” connectivity to nature and amenities, which enjoys the added benefit of natural ventilation throughout. Unique indoor-outdoor spaces at every scale are layered with landscaping and graphic murals and are discovered as one traverses the project. These varied experiences speak to the varied personalities and moods of the occupants.
The Press can serve as a model for other types of campuses with aggregated programs—where a mix of tenants/departments/schools can intersect with each other adjacent to public amenities (like the Rail Trail) and retail (like the Canteen). All set within an reused structure that is extremely porous, flexible and encourages indoor-outdoor interaction.
Design Architect:
Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects, Patricia Rhee, FAIA, DBIA - Partner; prhee@eyrc.com;
Associate Architect or Firm:
N/A
Landscape Architect:
LRM, Ltd., Charles Elliott, Principal, celliott@lrmltd.com
Lane Goodkind + Associates, Lane Goodkind, lane@lanegoodkind.com (canteen landscape)
RLA, Jim Ridge, jim@ridgela.com (rail trail landscape)
Owner / Developer:
SteelWave LLC, Jonathan Hastanan, jhastanan@steelwavellc.com
Engineer:
CIVIL ENGINEER: TAIT & Associates, Inc., Todd Schmieder, tschmieder@tait.com
MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL/PLUMBING ENGINEER: Alvine Engineering, Doug Alvine, dalvine@alvine.com
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: Saiful Bouquet – Y. K. Low, yklow@saifulbouquet.com
General Contractor:
Del Amo Construction; Jason Cave; jcave@delamoconstrution.com
Consultant:
INTERIOR DESIGNER 1: Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects, Patricia Rhee, FAIA, DBIA, prhee@eyrc.com
INTERIOR DESIGNER 2: Tag Front, Mehdi Rafaty, mehdi@tagfront.com (Canteen)
LIGHTING DESIGNER: BOLD – Brian Orter Lighting Design, Brian Orter, brian@brianorter.com
ENVIRONMENTAL GRAPHICS: 2x4, Susan Sellers, susan@2x4.org
LEED CONSULTANT: Alvine Engineering, Doug Alvine, dalvine@alvine.com
CODE CONSULTANT: Simpson Gumpertz and Heger - Nate Wittasek, nbwittasek@sgh.com
CANTEEN CONSULTANT: Lab Holding LLC – Shaheen Sadeghi, shaheen@thelab.com
BRANDING CONSULTANT: BLIND – Matthew Encina, matthew@blind.com
Photographer:
FINAL PHOTOGRAPHY: “Matthew Millman”; Matthew Millman, matthew@mathewmillman.com
FINAL PHOTOGRAPHY, FULL ELEVATIONS: “©Sze Tsung Nicolás Leong, courtesy Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles, and Yossi Milo Gallery, New York”; Sze Tsung Nicolás Leong, s.leong@me.com
PHOTOGRAPHS OF EXISTING BUILDING: “Brandon Shigeta”; Brandon Shigeta, bshigeta@gmail.com
HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPH: “Courtesy Costa Mesa Historical Society”; cmhistory@sbcglobal.net
The Press
Category
Commercial > Built
Winner Status
- Honor Award