The Gehry Building

From Industrial Space To Creative Center

The building at 12541 Beatrice Street in West Los Angeles was for 20 years an efficient but not particularly interesting industrial building that housed the West Coast distribution operations of BMW. Transformed by the View of front and garden area imagination of world-renowned architect Frank Gehry and the business acumen of noted real estate developer Larry Field, the building is the newest and most notable member of a new "creative business community" that has reinvigorated this formerly anonymous warehouse district.

"As soon as we saw the building, we realized it had three great advantages," says Field, who has developed dozens of successful retail, office and industrial projects in New York and California.

"It is near Los Angeles International Airport, the Marina and the West Side, which is a wonderful location. The building itself has great 'bones' — it's a beautifully engineered structure of concrete and steel, with 24 feet of interior height and vast open spans. And it has plenty of parking. It is very unusual to find an industrial building with ample parking, yet that is absolutely necessary for any building that will be used for offices."

Gehry and Field, who have been close friends for some 30 years, purchased the building and allocated about half of the space for a new studio for Gehry Partners, whose 120 staffers had previously been jammed into a warren of offices in Santa Monica. The remainder of what is now known as The Gehry Building, with 42,800 square feet of space, is available for lease. Interior entry and pedestrian walk

Known for outstanding architectural landmarks around the world, from the new Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, Gehry has applied his unique creativity to repurposing the Beatrice Street building.

An enclosed garden planned for the front of the building will provide a beautiful, quiet retreat visible from the interior through a soaring glass front wall.

A soaring hall that divides the Gehry studios from the tenant space at the front of the building will become an interior street.

Mezzanines in both the Gehry studio and the tenant space provide generous additional work area while preserving the open plan that encourages spontaneous communication and the easy exchange of ideas.

"This is an ideal environment for a company that wants a space that encourages creativity and imaginative thinking, and yet is as practical and efficient as any conventional office building," says Field. "For a company that excels because of the talents of its people, this location can truly be a competitive advantage."

Leasing of the building is being handled by Glenn Freeman, Senior Vice President of NSB Capital Partners. He can be reached at (310) 550-1570 or via e-mail at gfreeman@nsbinc.com.

Press contact: Alexander Auerbach, of Auerbach & Co. Inc. 800-871-2583, or auerbach@aapr.com