Design Architect:

BASTIEN & ASSOCIATES, INC.

Associate Architect or Firm:

BASTIEN & ASSOCIATES, INC.

Landscape Architect:

Owner / Developer:

A.J. KIRKWOOD & ASSOCIATES, INC.

Project Data:

Completion Date:     8/1/2019

Square Footage:      47160

Building Use:           Office

Project Description:

Originally built in 1954, this historic building has received a new life with a comprehensive adaptive re-use and rehabilitation project implemented to provide a new headquarters for A.J. Kirkwood & Associates. Many hours were spent in collaboration with the City of Fullerton to establish and implement exterior improvement criteria to restore the building to its original appearance during its historical period as the headquarters of the Beckman Instruments company.

The preservation criteria included determining the original color palette, matching the concrete finish, preserving existing seat walls, rehabilitating the cantilevered overhangs and preserving the existing roofline’s minimal edge coping details, as well as replicating the historic ribbon windows. Great care and design effort were employed to replicate the original window frames, shadow lines, spacing module, and clear glass. All of the original exterior light fixtures were re-conditioned and re-used. The original flagpole roundabout drive has been replicated in a new paved plaza containing the flagpole and a commemorative historic marker plaque mounted on a pedestal at the building’s entry. The original flagstone veneer has been cleaned and re-pointed with damaged stones replaced with carefully matched new stone where needed.

The original massing and plan configuration of the structure has been preserved – including the courtyards and signage tower. Great care has been given to the location of replacement HVAC units on the roof. Low profile units and mock-ups were used to determine the least visible areas on the roof to preserve the original mid-century flat roofline. Because this renovation project was part of a larger masterplan, the historic structure’s massing influenced the design of the seven new industrial buildings that made up the remainder of the project. The original Beckman Building’s unique angled overhanging window soffit design was incorporated at the entry canopies of the surrounding 8-building industrial building complex. Additionally, all new buildings were pulled back from the street so the historic structure retains its intended visibility along Harbor Blvd.

The interior of the building had been completely cleared of all the historical modular improvements by the previous owner of the property. The new interior employs open plan design and modular style furnishings to create the design studios for the engineers that now occupy the space. However, the existing structural frame is featured in the new interiors as exposed structure with the original orange paint color that was applied in the original construction.

The Beckman Instruments Administration Building has played many important roles in the development and transition of the Fullerton community from an agrarian area to the vital thriving community it is today. The thoughtful adaptive re-use rehabilitation of this important historic structure is an outstanding example of building upon a community resource, reducing embodied carbon impact, and providing a great new headquarters for one of the companies that has built Orange County.