The main entrance on 8th Street
8th & Alameda Studios
Tapping into Urban Vitality to Create an Arts District Studio Environment
In the era of media innovation, 8th & Alameda Studios is designed to fulfill the increasing demand for Studio environments that support all aspects of content production. The 26-acre site in DTLA will become a creative campus and connected urban place with an unmistakable tie to its evolving industrial surroundings in the Arts District.
Current home of the Los Angeles Times printing plant, RIOS imagines placemaking strategies that revive the street facing parts of the site and creates an integrated and practical site strategy for the multiple functions happening within the redevelopment. As it is planned, the site boasts 17 soundstages to meet local demand.
Alameda Street & Hunter Street looking northest
The site planning strategy calls for a phased development to transform the parking lots that currently occupy the perimeter of the site into soundstages and supporting office, while still allowing the LA Times printing plant to operate within the site.
RIOS reimagines a new identity for the site through expressive landscapes and facade designs that nod to its history and the industrial language of the surrounding Arts District. The design masks the parking façade with a series of screen elements facing all orientations to give the illusion of volume on the exterior. The design of the Production Support buildings maintains functionality and quality.
The landscape develops from public facing to private, with a progression of dark colors at the edges to light color on the internal faces of the studios, tying into the existing white LA Times building. Pops of yellow are sprinkled across the site for buildings to reference each other, while the gray gradient of the building materials palette offers a beautiful backdrop for the landscape.
8th Street & Alameda Street looking southeast
Collaborators
Client: Atlas Capital Group
Studio Designer: Gary Bastien and Associates