 CGA and its partner REthink Development recently received approvals from Culver City to create its new Southern California headquarters in the architecturally advanced Hayden Tract district. CGA will occupy about 10,000 square feet of the 63,000-square-foot structure, selling remaining space to other firms as office condominiums. The building, named The Plant, will offer four stories of commercial office space and two levels of underground parking. Designed as a model for reducing energy use and enhancing the urban environment, The Plant is projected to break ground in 2011 and open in late 2012. It is intended to become the first very high-performance office condominium for creative businesses in one of this section of Los Angeles.
“The principals of the firm are investing their own money significantly in this project,” says CGA Principal Jonathan V. Watts, AIA, LEED® A.P. “It’s a sign that design industry leaders can commit to high-performance design not only as a design or moral exercise, but also as an investment strategy.”
There are previous examples of the architect-as-developer in other cities: In San Diego, Jonathan Segal has demonstrated the process for other architects. But in Los Angeles it remains unusual for an architecture firm to tackle property acquisition, approvals, financing, liability protection and other development issues. REthink Development, like CGA, has a strong track record in green design and sustainable development. And the team’s timing may be right for the eventual commercial real estate rebound.
CGA’s The Plant is located in the Hayden Tract, a three square miles mix of eclectic and advanced architecture in California. It includes the notorious Stealth building, designed by Eric Owen Moss, along with dozens of other highly expressive spaces. The Hayden Tract is zoned for industrial use and has morphed, over the past 10 years, into an area of creative uses such as movie production, interior design, graphic design, advertising, architecture and internet firms.
 In that time, a dialogue has emerged here between the latest urban interventions and more traditional warehouse forms. The Plant will assume an important role in the architectural expression of the Hayden Tract by dramatically raising green building standards.
“Eric Owen Moss started the debate with his deliberately polarizing Stealth building, which can be seen as dynamic or discordant,” says Watts. “Either way, the debate is healthy, and The Plant will inspire more dialog as it emerges as the area’s premier high-performance building. It will set the bar for buildings whose dramatic appearance is not merely stylistic, but an organic expression of the highest practical standards of energy efficiency and green design.”
High-Performance and Energy-Efficiency in the Design
The term “high-performance” has become the preferred way to describe green buildings. It designates structures that, whether or not they achieve LEED certification, make the most efficient use of resources.
The project’s high-performance attributes include:
• High-mass, radiantly heated and cooled building with an advanced thermal control system;
• Solar absorption chiller;
• Natural ventilation with trickle vents, operable windows and stack-effect vent shafts;
• Dual-glazed, Low E, floor-to-ceiling glazing with sun-control devices appropriate to the various orientations to maximize daylighting and control heat gain;
• Energy-efficient lighting systems, coordinated with natural daylight sensors to maintain even lighting levels and save energy;
• A green living roof to reduce heat gain, reduce storm-water runoff and clean the air.
• Drought-tolerant, landscaping throughout the project;
• Small floorplates with single loaded access to bring light into 95% of the office space and offer views;
 CGA’s team designed the building from the inside out, with its external expression indicating what was necessary to make the interior comfortable, controllable and energy efficient. The building is organized in two halves around an exterior courtyard. This not only creates a 35-foot maximum distance from glazing for cross-ventilation and daylighting, but it also responds to the site topography and differing height limitations across the site. The split mass of the structure also allows small floor plates of a maximum of 10,000 square feet, providing optimum light, ventilation, openness and an owner’s “sense of place” within the building.
The building’s orientation, combined with sun shades and double façade elements, will help keep the building cool in the summer and warm in the winter, while allowing prevailing breezes to pass through the floors. Most products and finishes will contain no or very low VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) and will include recycled or renewable components.
“The integration of all these elements allow us to deliver a building that is better designed, more energy-efficient, less expensive to operate, more durable, healthier, and more environmentally sound; all of which will make the spaces more valuable and desirable,” says Watts.
Cultural Context: The MGM Legacy
The Plant’s 34,000-square-foot site is zoned for industrial use and bounded on two sides by single-family homes. The challenge from the outset was to design a project which, as a commercial development, makes the most of its allowed area and height while, as a responsible neighbor, respects the community around it. The form of the building emerged after months of discussion among the REthink Development, CGA design team and the community, at public meetings and through collaboration with City Planning and City Council.
Beyond these parameters though, the Culver City location started a conversation of how to reflect the site’s strong cultural heritage within the film industry. The project sits on land formerly occupied by Selznick Studios, home of Gone With the Wind's Tara plantation, as well as Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's Desilu Studios. And the Hayden Tract is still a thriving industry support area.
To represent this cultural connection, CGA’s designers developed an abstraction of a film strip as a design element binding the two building halves. Created as a metal ribbon, this unifying component creates motion out of stasis and leads the eye around the structure. It begins above the southern parking entry then soars upward to span the crevasse between the halves of the plan. From there it loops around the top floor and plunges into the courtyard, creating two outdoor rooms in that space. As the ribbon returns to the south half it completes the binding.
“Movies tell stories and this ribbon is a nod to the past use of the site and a way to complete the story of this new use,” says Watts. “We are also considering the projection of images from Gone With the Wind onto some exterior building elements.”
In this way, the first high-performance office condominium in Los Angeles points to the future while honoring the past.
About Cuningham Group
Cuningham Group transcends tradition with architecture, interior design, urban design and planning services for a diverse mix of client and project types. Our client-centered, collaborative approach incorporates trend-setting architecture and environmental responsiveness to create projects that weave seamlessly into the urban fabric. Founded in 1968, the firm is consistently recognized as a leader in a variety of markets and has grown to over 160 employees in offices in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Biloxi, Bakersfield, Madrid and Seoul.
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