Larry David, Maria Menounos, and Sofia Vergara are among the Hollywood elites scheduled to attend a star-studded gala March 8 to celebrate the opening of Emerson College's new $85 million Los Angeles campus building.
Located on Sunset Boulevard, in the heart of LA's entertainment and communications industry, the 10-story, 107,000-sf multipurpose campus can house up to 217 students and includes wired classrooms, an open-air screening and live-performance space, a Dolby Surround 7.1 audio post-production suite, a 4K screening room, computer labs, mixing suites, and a planned green screen motion capture stage.
Design architect Thom Mayne of Morphosis said the building's form, which takes the shape of a massive, shimmering aircraft hangar, housing a sculptural, glass-and-aluminum base building, is designed to "expand the interactive, social aspect of education. We focused on creating with the broader community in mind—both in terms of public space and sustainable design.”
The building’s exterior features a dynamic sun shading system that adapts to changing weather conditions to maintain optimal indoor temperature and natural light levels. Heating and cooling of the building is further optimized through an innovative passive valence system developed by Buro Happold.
Photo: Iwan Baan - www.iwan.com / Courtesy Emerson College
Additional green design initiatives include: the use of recycled and rapidly renewable building materials; installation of efficient water-saving fixtures; a high-performance glass curtain-wall to minimize heat gain; landscaping and a living green wall; and a central management infrastructure to monitor overall building efficiency.
Morphosis' design statement:
Bringing student housing, instructional facilities, and administrative offices to one location, ELA condenses the diversity of a college campus into an urban site. Evoking the concentrated energy of East-Coast metropolitan centers in an iconic Los Angeles setting, a rich dialogue emerges between students’ educational background and their professional futures.
Fundamental to the Emerson Los Angeles experience, student living circumstances give structure to the overall building. Housing up to 217 students, the domestic zones frame a dynamic core dedicated to creativity, learning, and social interaction. Composed of two slender residential towers connected by a helistop, the 10-story square frame encloses a central open volume to create a flexible outdoor “room.”
A sculpted form housing classrooms and administrative offices weaves through the void, defining multi-level terraces and active interstitial spaces that foster informal social activity and creative cross-pollination. Looking out onto the multi-level terrace, exterior corridors to student suites and common rooms are shaded by an undulating, textured metal scrim spanning the full height of the towers’ interior face.
Photo: Iwan Baan - www.iwan.com / Courtesy Emerson College
Looking to the local context, the center finds a provocative precedent in the interiority of Hollywood film studios, where outwardly regular façades house flexible, fantastical spaces within. With rigging for screens, media connections, sound, and lighting incorporated into the façade’s metal framework, this dynamic visual backdrop also serves as a flexible armature for outdoor performances. The entire building becomes a stage set for student films, screenings, and industry events, with the Hollywood sign, the city of Los Angeles, and the Pacific Ocean in the distance providing added scenery.
Anticipated to achieve a LEED Gold rating, the new center champions Emerson’s commitment to both sustainable design and community responsibility. Wrapping the building’s northwest corner, a green wall underscores the towers’ actively changing exterior skin. Connected to weather stations that track the local climate, temperature, and sun angle, the automated sunshade system opens and closes horizontal fins outside the high-performance glass curtain-wall to minimize heat gain while maximizing daylight and views.
Further green initiatives include the use of recycled and rapidly renewable building materials, installation of efficient fixtures to reduce water use by 40%, energy savings in heating and cooling through a passive valence system, and a building management and commissioning infrastructure to monitor and optimize efficiency of all systems.
Photo: Iwan Baan - www.iwan.com / Courtesy Emerson College
Building Team
Architect: Morphosis Architects (Thom Mayne)
Structural engineer: John A. Martin Associates, Inc.
MEP engineer: Buro Happold
General contractor: Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Company
Development consultant: Robert Silverman
Civil engineer: KPFF
IT/BIM implementation: Synthesis
Lighting consultant: Horton Lees Brogden Lighting Design, Inc.
Specifications: Technical Resources Consultants, Inc.
Theater consultant: Auerbach Pollock Friedlander
Acoustic consultant: Newson Brown Associates LLC
Audiovisual/IT consultant: Waveguide Consulting Inc.
Code/life safety consultant: Arup
Facade consultant: A. Zahner Architectural Metals; JA Weir Associates
Cost consultant: Davis Langdon
Vertical transportation: Edgett Williams Consulting Group, Inc.
Curtain wall consultant: Walters & Wolf
LEED consultant: Davis Langdon
Graphics: Follis Design
Waterproofing consultant: Independent Roofing Consultants
Geotechnical consultant: Geotechnologies Inc.
Sustainability: Davis Langdon
Landscape consultant: Katherine Spitz Associates
Architectural specifications consultant: Technical Resources Consultants, Inc.
Architectural visualization: Kilograph
Smoke control: Exponent
Exterior building maintenance: Olympique
Project Information
Cost: $85 million
Total size: 107,000 sf (70,500 sf residential; 30,100 sf instructional/administrative; 6,400 sf retail for Emerson kitchen)
Lot size: 37,351 sf
Building height: 130 feet; 10 stories
Parking: three levels of subterranean parking with 239 parking spaces
Housing: capacity for 217 students: 159 single rooms (eight are designated for resident assistants), 29 double rooms, and four faculty/staff apartments
Instructional spaces: six general purpose classrooms; computer lab; editing lab; audio lab; distance learning room; two performance studios; two dressing rooms; two study rooms; 4K screening room; large assembly room; audio post mixing suite
For more information, read Emerson's article on the Emerson LA grand opening and the LA Times report.
Photo: Iwan Baan - www.iwan.com / Courtesy Emerson College
Photo: Iwan Baan - www.iwan.com / Courtesy Emerson College
Photo: Iwan Baan - www.iwan.com / Courtesy Emerson College
Photo: Iwan Baan - www.iwan.com / Courtesy Emerson College
Photo: Iwan Baan - www.iwan.com / Courtesy Emerson College
Photo: Iwan Baan - www.iwan.com / Courtesy Emerson College
Related Stories
Market Data | Apr 1, 2024
Nonresidential construction spending dips 1.0% in February, reaches $1.179 trillion
National nonresidential construction spending declined 1.0% in February, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of data published today by the U.S. Census Bureau. On a seasonally adjusted annualized basis, nonresidential spending totaled $1.179 trillion.
Affordable Housing | Apr 1, 2024
Biden Administration considers ways to influence local housing regulations
The Biden Administration is considering how to spur more affordable housing construction with strategies to influence reform of local housing regulations.
Affordable Housing | Apr 1, 2024
Chicago voters nix ‘mansion tax’ to fund efforts to reduce homelessness
Chicago voters in March rejected a proposed “mansion tax” that would have funded efforts to reduce homelessness in the city.
Standards | Apr 1, 2024
New technical bulletin covers window opening control devices
A new technical bulletin clarifies the definition of a window opening control device (WOCD) to promote greater understanding of the role of WOCDs and provide an understanding of a WOCD’s function.
Adaptive Reuse | Mar 30, 2024
Hotel vs. office: Different challenges in commercial to residential conversions
In the midst of a national housing shortage, developers are examining the viability of commercial to residential conversions as a solution to both problems.
Sustainability | Mar 29, 2024
Demystifying carbon offsets vs direct reductions
Chris Forney, Principal, Brightworks Sustainability, and Rob Atkinson, Senior Project Manager, IA Interior Architects, share the misconceptions about carbon offsets and identify opportunities for realizing a carbon-neutral building portfolio.
Reconstruction & Renovation | Mar 28, 2024
Longwood Gardens reimagines its horticulture experience with 17-acre conservatory
Longwood Gardens announced this week that Longwood Reimagined: A New Garden Experience, the most ambitious revitalization in a century of America’s greatest center for horticultural display, will open to the public on November 22, 2024.
Office Buildings | Mar 27, 2024
A new Singapore office campus inaugurates the Jurong Innovation District, a business park located in a tropical rainforest
Surbana Jurong, an urban, infrastructure and managed services consulting firm, recently opened its new headquarters in Singapore. Surbana Jurong Campus inaugurates the Jurong Innovation District, a business park set in a tropical rainforest.
Cultural Facilities | Mar 27, 2024
Kansas City’s new Sobela Ocean Aquarium home to nearly 8,000 animals in 34 habitats
Kansas City’s new Sobela Ocean Aquarium is a world-class facility home to nearly 8,000 animals in 34 habitats ranging from small tanks to a giant 400,000-gallon shark tank.
Market Data | Mar 26, 2024
Architecture firm billings see modest easing in February
Architecture firm billings continued to decline in February, with an AIA/Deltek Architecture Billings Index (ABI) score of 49.5 for the month. However, February’s score marks the most modest easing in billings since July 2023 and suggests that the recent slowdown may be receding.
