Neighborhood Legal Services
Glendale, Calif.
Osborn

Conference room brings lawyers closer to the street

Courtesy Osborn

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Neighborhood Legal Services, a nonprofit law group, commissioned Osborn to convert a 1920s era building into its offices. Located in the Adams Square district of Glendale, Calif., the art deco building was formerly an open-air market. Its renovation required approval from the local and state preservation office, as well as extensive feedback from the community. An added challenge was that the client's budget, which was partially funded through a grant from the city, totalled just $750,000. Remarkably, the final construction costs came in just a hair above it.

The program for Neighborhood Legal Services adds up to 5,330 square feet and consists of nine offices, a waiting area and front lobby, receptionist and secretarial space, a soundproof conference room, an area for paralegals, and restrooms. Osborn decided that the patina of age was a crucial aspect of the building's character and thus to leave its exterior walls untouched. This choice not only satisfied preservation concerns, it saved the client money by avoiding a costly restoration. Inside, however, the architect added a new datum: a “normalizing” band of ten-foot white gypsum partitioning that delineates the worn perimeter wall from the new functions.

Spatially, the building is divided into six bays that run from the street to the back wall. The architects treated each bay separately, emphasizing or downplaying the visual connection to the street according to the respective program element within it. The building's most notable element, for instance, is what Osborn describes a “conference machine”: a pair of conference rooms in the central bay that are enclosed by slightly opaque polycarbonate panels and whose floors are covered with bright red carpeting. These rooms occupy the building's most prominent bay and large windows symbolically connect the lawyers to the public they serve.

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Formal name of Project:
Neighborhood Legal Services

Location:
Glendale, Calif.

Gross square footage:
5,330 sq. ft.

Total construction cost:
$763,260

Owner:
Neighborhood Legal Services

Architect:
Osborn
320 East Harvard Street
Glendale, CA 91205-1019
818-246-3112 tel.
818-246-3567 fax
www.osborn320.com