Project Data:

Completion Date:     1/15/2023

Square Footage:      11000

Building Use:           Commercial Interiors for Non-Profit

Project Description:

How can a series of curated spatial experiences help promote a company's values? That is the question the design team asked themselves when designing a new equitable, egalitarian, art-filled space for The Broad Foundation and Broad Family Offices in Downtown LA.

Located on Bunker Hill, one block from The Broad Museum, this high-rise office space is organized as a series of curated spatial experiences that help promote the company's values and double as the ideal backdrop to the client's impressive art collection.

As you proceed through the elevator lobby, your first experience is the Education Library – a warm, textured, inviting social space that expresses the Foundation's emphasis on education. Filled with a rich material palette, all the way up to the low coffered ceiling, this room, which is based on the Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand exhibition "House for a Young Man," serves as a domestic, communal space aimed to induce curiosity and promote conversation. Fold-up windows help connect the Library to the Kitchen, simultaneously acting as a serving space for the combined social area.

Transparent private offices are in the project's core, and open workspaces surround the building perimeter, creating an egalitarian bright work area filled with natural light and views of the city skyline. The architecture, with its clean, simple lines and elegantly detailed office fronts trimmed in white oak, is the ideal backdrop to the client's impressive art collection, which uses the circulation spaces to curate their fine art collection.

One of this project's main challenges was the building's pre-existing soffit and ductwork. Positioned on 1 Cal Plaza's mechanical floor, the building's large mechanical ducts pass directly through the space, taking most of the double-height volume. These enormous mechanical distribution systems for the entire 42-story building are masked by a series of dropped coffered ceilings and overhead soffits that mitigate the large ceiling volume and provide opportunities for acoustic sound treatments. Playing with volume also allowed us to create intimacy in more communal areas and open up spaces for larger groups or paths of movement around the perimeter.

Framework for Design Excellence

When The Broad Foundation and Broad Family offices approached the design team about moving their headquarters from Century City to a location that's more accessible and equitable to the people they represent and support, they wanted to create a space that could reflect their company's values while also being able to showcase their impressive art collection.

Located on 1 Cal Plaza's mechanical floor, this high-rise office space, which has a mechanical distribution system large enough to serve an entire 42-story building, had the distinct challenge of having to create a series of moments that are welcoming, educational, communal, intimate, private, transparent, and can double as a fine art gallery. To create these moments, the design team looked to volume, organizational strategies, materiality, and circulation to form a series of curated spatial experiences that fulfill the client's programmatic needs, promote their values, and promote a sense of discovery and delight.

One of the project's delightful moments is the Educational Library – a warm, textured, inviting social space that expresses the Foundation's emphasis on education, collective action, and bold thinking. Located under an acoustically treated dropped coffered ceiling that masks the building's mechanical distribution system, the Education Library is filled with a rich material pallet and serves as a domestic, communal gathering space to induce curiosity, host conversations, and promote human connection.

Organizational and circulation strategies are implemented to make the project more equitable and inclusive. Instead of placing the Foundation's private offices in the perimeter, we set transparent private offices in the project's core, allowing us to place open workspaces on the perimeter, creating an egalitarian bright work area filled with natural light and city skyline views. The project's circulation spaces, which double as a curated fine art gallery, integrate moments of delight for the Foundation's visitors and staff.

Firm Name:              ShubinDonaldson Architects Inc.

Completion Date:     1/15/2023

Square Footage:      11000

Building Use:           Commercial Interiors for Non-Profit

Location:                 300 S Grand Ave, Suite 1800 Los Angeles, CA 90013

Design Architect:
ShubinDonaldson

Associate Architect or Firm:
Interior Designer | Set Studio

Landscape Architect:

Owner / Developer:
Eli & Edyth Broad Foundation

Engineer:
Structural | Nabih Youssef Structural Engineers
MEP | Simon S. Wong & Associates

General Contractor:
Sierra Pacific Constructors

Consultant:
Lighting Consultant: Oculus Light Studio

AV Design: Cibola Systems Corporation

IT / Low Voltage Design: ITS Design Group

Acoustics: Veneklasen

Furniture: Mash Studios

Millwork: AM Cabinets

Photographer:
Benny Chan