NeueHouse Venice Beach is a private workspace for the Westside creative community, which offers open and private work spaces, dining options and elevated cultural programming. Having previously executed the 20,000 square foot buildout for NeueHouse’s location within the historic Bradbury Building, as well as ongoing interventions at their Hollywood location, we are pleased to continue our partnership with a company who shares our commitment to fostering community and cultural innovation. The project is composed of two neighboring, unreinforced masonry buildings with a shared party wall, which was opened up to create a single 17,000 square foot structure. Programs include private studios, open workstations interspersed with lounge settings, and specialty programs such as an art gallery, broadcast room, and wellness room. LMA helped orchestrate a complete seismic retrofit, taking great care to preserve the character of the 100-year-old structure. Done in collaboration with acclaimed interior design studio, Design Agency, the project features organic materials and locally crafted custom furniture.

Venice Beach has been an artist community for many decades and the building itself retains a legacy of creative work. It was once the studio of Larry Bell, the pioneering artist of the California Light and Space movement, who took inspiration from the play between sunlight and marine fog which rolls over the coastal neighborhood. Subtleties of light continue to play an integral role in the building’s redesign. Large ground floor windows take up almost the entire street-facing façade allowing ample, filtered light into the reception area. Retrofitted skylights and clerestory windows in the coworking areas bring controlled natural light deep into the space. Bell renovated the building in 1969 to install oversized barn doors that were big enough to allow the passage of his large-scale glass pieces. These doors, while utilitarian, had become dilapidated, so the opportunity was taken to replace them with a large folding glass garage door which opens the gallery to the sidewalk, a gesture which extends cultural programming to the street and creates a more dynamic and inviting relationship with the block. The flow between indoor and outdoor space continues on the rooftop patio, with NeueHouse’s in-house food and beverage program ‘Reunion.’