The Press

A former Los Angeles Times printing plant is reimagined as a 439,224 sf creative campus. The Orange County facility, vacant since 2010 along with an even-longer-abandoned rail line and gas station, is reincarnated as a multidisciplinary workspace with a dining Canteen and a public Rail Trail on its 23.4-acre site. Precise cuts through precast concrete walls and roofing bring in fresh air, daylight and views. This subtraction exposes the beauty of the existing, reviving what has since been neglected and inviting the landscape to enter in through and around the campus. A thoughtful, intentional balance between preservation and growth distinguishes this complex adaptive reuse. The design celebrates both material and organic markers of time. Paint chips, rail spurs and conveyor belts are left as is and an existing tree is placed to grow through the structure itself—hinting at history, site and context. Among adaptive reuses of its scale, the project is notable for utilizing nearly every aspect of the building’s previous use. The campus design preserves and upgrades the existing structure with minimal intervention, extending the lifespan of a local landmark beyond even its newly repurposed use today.