Costa Mesa, California
A former printing and distribution center for The Los Angeles Times has become The Press, by Patricia Rhee of Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects for SteelWave, transforming what was once an abandoned industrial ruin to become a fresh take on the common creative office campus.
The goal was to breathe new life (daylight, views, fresh air, access) into the buildings while preserving and respecting the original forms and structure.
The integration of landscape is a pervasive theme, tying together the site and structure as one: a ruin recaptured by nature.
The Press has recently been awarded a 2023 International Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The approach was one of selective subtraction, at all scales.
Swaths of the old building were removed to introduce courtyards or passageways and carefully engineered slots in the concrete shell to maximize daylight and views and help humanize interior spaces.
The new Atrium is an open-to-sky moment at the heart of the project.
Once one of the original clear-height “cathedral” spaces, it is now activated by new catwalk-like circulation and suspended pop-out meeting rooms and platforms.
A “sky cut” slices across the building to create a new pedestrian path with tenant entrances and opportunities for indoor-outdoor experiences.
Former mechanical penthouses become a hideaway rooftop bar and sky garden, bringing in greenery and light.
Space for machines becomes space for humans – leviathan volumes for printing presses become cathedral-like workplaces.
The result is a humanized campus in harmony with its industrial history and enhanced by the natural landscape.
Project: The Press
Architects: Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects
Lead Architect: Patricia Rhee
Contractor: Del Amo Construction
Client: SteelWave LLC.
Photographers: Matthew Millman Photography
