Burbank, California, USA
Frank Gehry and his design team completes the Second Century Project that includes seven- and nine-story buildings, clad with a glass facade that allows the hulking buildings to loom above the adjacent freeway like icebergs.
The project began with an ambition from the client to create a strong architectural statement that could serve as both an icon for the city of Burbank and a symbol of their commitment to creating high-quality, innovative additions to the cityscape.
The project has been awarded a 2024 American and 2024 International Architecture Awards by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Located in the heart of the Burbank Media District between Alameda Ave and Olive St on the 134 Freeway, the Project sits on a 37-acre site that formerly housed NBC Studios where iconic programs such as The Tonight Show were filmed.
The site, with a quarter of a mile of prime frontage on the 134 Freeway in Burbank, California, enables this ambition quite well. This condition presented a unique opportunity to create a powerful architectural presence with enough frontage to captivate drivers on the busy freeway.
The “Iceberg”, as it is known, is a crystalline façade of varied angles of glass planes that march across the freeway side of the building.
To reinforce the clarity of the iceberg image, the design incorporates several features into the glass façade design.
The white ceramic frit renders the building in an icy white, while the tall parapets form the distinctly angled tops of the iceberg, and the “slip and slide” massing of the façades is reminiscent of large chunks of ice that have been sheared by their own weight.
The image of the iceberg is also a bit of a historical reference to the larger-than-life painted backdrops of natural landscapes and skies that once occupied studio lots. Often, these landscapes were visible from the street and added unexpected color and life to the passersby.
On the studio side, the building breaks down into smaller-scale elements that step down to the existing studio lot. Stainless steel metal façades with large openings act as a counterpoint to the completely glazed façades of the freeway side.
The articulation of the metal façades conveys a historic industrial feel, a throwback to Hollywood’s bygone era when the architecture of the movie studios symbolized the grandeur of their ambitions.
Like Art Deco façades of the past, the setbacks of the metal façade create a stepped silhouette, the articulation around the metal piers delineates surface relief, and the recessed horizontal spandrel panels emphasize the verticality of the piers.
The punched windows introduce a scale appropriate to the activities and life on the studio side. The majority of the open space and landscape is placed at the same grade as the existing studio lot to create a strong pedestrian connection between existing and new.
The stepped metal façades create terraces for elevated outdoor spaces directly adjacent to office areas.
The freeway side of the building creates an acoustic barrier protecting these outdoor spaces. The massing approach results in a variety of floor plate sizes ranging from approximately 39,000 gsf to 57,000 gsf in each building.
On the first two levels, the floor plates in each building could be combined into a single open floorplate of about 110,000 gsf per level. On the third level, the two buildings are connected via an outdoor open terrace space.
This variety of floor plate sizes and combinations allows flexibility for the interior programming of a large number and range of companies/divisions. The design facilitates both open collaborative working environments as well as traditional closed office spaces for executives.
This distinction is expressed in the building façades. Large expansive open spaces with floor-to-ceiling glass façades define the collaborative workspaces, whereas more traditional punched window façades were used for the executive offices.
The project transformed the site from a single-user studio lot to an independent production studio lot with the ability to house multiple tenants with nearly one million gsf in additional sound stages, office, production space, and other support facilities. The master plan for the project was organized to be phased, with floorplates that allow for a variety of tenants and organization while creating the highest quality office space.
This master plan enabled the client to sign Warner Bros to a long-term lease for the development of a two-phase office building at the southern end of the lot. The project was embraced by both the client and the tenant, who named it The Second Century Project, marking Warner Bros’ second hundred years of operations.
“It has been my great pleasure to bring this project to life with my client and collaborator Jeff Worthe. It doesn’t take more time or more money to make good architecture, but it does take a careful, thoughtful, and intensely involved client. From the start, we were interested in making office space that felt more special to be in than the typical office buildings – taller ceilings, more natural light. I hope that the folks who work here will feel the love and talent that my team poured into the project.” – Frank O. Gehry
Project: Second Century Project
Architects: Gehry Partners, LLP.
Lead Architect: Frank Gehry
Design Team: Tensho Takemori, David Nam, Heather Waters, and Meaghan Lloyd
Interior Architects: NBBJ
Landscape Architects: OJB Landscape Architecture
Contractor: Krismar Construction Company and M. David Paul Assoc.
Client: Worthe Real Estate Group
Photographs: Courtesy of the Architects