Lehrer Architects LA Office
Los Angeles
Lehrer Architects LA

Openness and light celebrate the beauty of work

	Index | Project Specs
	Click here for slide show. Photo © Benny Chan

Workspaces can say a lot about the culture and aesthetic of the people who work within them. With this in mind, Lehrer Architects LA purchased a dingy, 50-year-old, trapezoidal-shaped warehouse in the Los Angeles suburb of Silverlake and set about transforming it into a new home for itself that would be marked by lightness, airiness, and transparency. The architects considered the project an “exploration of working space.”

Succinct interventions ensured that construction costs totaled just $20 per square foot: a figure that included all mechanical, electrical, data and telephone infrastructure, landscaping, and the build-out of all work surfaces. The main construction elements included replacing the building’s southern wall; installing work surfaces of white painted solid-core doors, each measuring 4 by 8 feet; covering the floors with epoxy-finished paint; installing off-the-shelf storage systems; and landscaping.

While this office specifically houses architects, the designers conceived of it as a generic working space. They aimed to simply and clearly honor the rudiments of work: vast desk surfaces are lit with natural light and are seamless connected to the exterior landscape and fresh air. Generous, vivid, and available storage helps define the main room, while clearly individuated work stations add up to a coherent, palpable group. A red line, painted on the floor, adds further consistency. Architects tend to think of architecture as process, while clients think of it as product. In this office, process and product become one. Visitors are immediately drawn into the architecture, which is about the beauty of making architecture.

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Formal name of project:
Lehrer Architects LA Office

Location:
Los Angeles

Gross square footage:
5,400 sq. ft.

Total project cost:
$125,000

Owner:
Michael B. Lehrer, FAIA

Architect:
Lehrer Architects LA
2140 Hyperion Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90027
323-664-4747 tel.
323-664-3566 fax
www.lehrerarchitects.com

Click here to see all the people and products behind this project