Location: Los Angeles, CA

Client: Deutsch

Project Team: Frederic Schwartz Architects, Architect | Key Staff: Douglas Romines, Henry Rollmann, John Adams, Taizo Yamamoto

Awards

Interior Design Award, New York Chapter AIA
Decade of Design Award International Interior Design Association
Honor Award Long Island Chapter AIA
International Interior Design Association “Best of the Decade”

This award-winning project demonstrates planning and interior design skills with a no-nonsense, low-budget industrial aesthetic for the new Los Angeles headquarters for leading advertising company, Deutsch Inc.

 The existing 100,000sf building was gutted and the exterior tilt-up concrete-panel facade was perforated with 50 new industrial windows and skylights. Bold steel “X-bracing” structure was added for seismic stability. Off-the-shelf plumber’s pipe and “speed-rail” fitting industrial workstations were designed in an Eames-like aesthetic for 400 employees.

The spare industrial aesthetic, clear orthogonal plan and circulation and coordinated infrastructure showcase the people at work. No one sits behind closed doors and extra-wide circulation promotes chance interactions. Flexibility is facilitated by rigorous geometry and varied spaces for people to meet, present and work. Breakout spaces encourage chance encounters that develop into impromptu meetings.

Aspects of the design are revealed in the exposed framing and concrete floors of the industrial shell which are then animated by an extra-wide open steel and concrete stairs, lines of blue runway lights and exposed ductwork, giving an industrial richness, depth and color to the space.