Brought to you by:Architect: LEVER ArchitectureLocation: Los AngelesCompletion Date: 2024In Universal Citythe neighborhood-sized home of Universal Picturess corporate campus, production lots, and theme parkLEVER Architecture has designed two new buildings: The Commons and One Universal. The former, an employee amenity space, evokes early moving picture technology through its circular structure and lenticular shade screen of thin aluminum tubes. Its companion, One Universal, is a more conventional glass office building that navigates the campuss rugged hillside through a succession of staggered volumes. Together, these additions are part of the larger Campus Project, an effort to modernize Universal Studioss corporate facilities, while also improving the campuss walkability, beauty, and landscaping. LEVER Architecture designed two new buildings for the campus: The Commons, a circular structure containing employee amenity spaces, and One Universal, a glass office building composed in staggered boxes that straddle the highway. (Ema Peter)Working closely with the projects landscape architect, Field Operations, LEVER separated the two additions with a green lawn. This space creates much-needed breathing room on the campus and functions similar to college quad, providing a place for recreation and leisure. Field Operations also worked to improve pedestrian access along Gregory Peck Drive, a once bare inner-campus thoroughfare now lined with trees and landscaping. Ultimately, the Campus Project is designed to make sense out of years of haphazard development. Opened in 1915 by Carl Laemmle, Universal Studios was built atop a ranch property and remains today an unincorporated community within Los Angeles County. Its character is very much that of a company town.We were interested in putting the city back in Universal City, Thomas Robinson, founding principal of LEVER, told AN. Over the years, the core of the studio had been redeveloped to focus on cars, much like a lot of redevelopment you saw in other cities during the 1960s and 1970s. Instead of having one mega building, we separated the commissary and theater programs [from the office], creating a central building called The Commons that has its own shape and identity.The Commons is located near the center of the corporate campus, allowing for easy employee access. (Ema Peter)Universals new employee amenity space pays homage to the studios long history of filmmaking through its circular form, which was inspired by a zoetrope, an early moving picture technology in which the painted interior of a spinning cylinder cycles through a series of gradually changing images to create the illusion of motion, a technique similar to that of flipbook animation. The building contains a food hall on its first floor, theaters and screening rooms on the second, and a rooftop event space. Open to sunlight on all sides, The Commons is shaded by a screen of vertically oriented aluminum tubes that wrap the circumference of the structure. The individual tubes are painted white and were influenced by the extruded masts of sailboats, according to Robinson. To further the buildings zoetrope metaphor, LEVER worked to create the illusion of movement across the surface of the screen. A crescent-shaped cut was applied to each of the extrusions and a reflective inner lining was applied, creating a lenticular effect, where the appearance of color, depth, and movement are shaped by light conditions as well as the viewers perspective in relation to the facade.The screen steps outward from the building mass to create shaded outdoor dining spaces along the ground level of The Commons. (Ema Peter)Across the lawn, One Universal delivers new Class A office space to the campus as well as a 500,000-square-foot parking garage. Tasked with spanning a 90-foot grade change, LEVER used this opportunity to conceal the garage within the hillside, situating the office space above in two offset glass volumes. The stepped design of the building recalls the design of Los Angeless luxury hillside residences, and offers views of the nearby San Gabriel mountains. An outdoor deck was also incorporated on the seventh floor at the intersection of the split volumes. To improve the buildings carbon footprint, the western elevations of the office are shaded with horizontally oriented blinds while the structure itself was constructed using a low-carbon concrete.One Universal contains an 11-story office building above a 1,200-car garage. (Ema Peter)Despite its large scope, the Campus Project is but a single objective in Universals Evolution Plan, focused on capital improvements in Universal City, which has been underway since 2013. Over the next few years, the company plans to add 14 new sound stages, additional attractions and immersive lands within the Universal Studios theme park, a child care center, and sheriff substation.The interventions made by LEVER and Field Operations provide a reprieve from the 20th-century mall and theme park urbanism of Universal City, supplying new amenity and outdoor spaces that are key to employee retention in the 21st century.Project SpecificationsArchitect: LEVER ArchitectureArchitect of Record: House & Robertson ArchitectsInterior Design: LEVER, AvroKO, GenslerStructural Engineer (One Universal): WSP, Englekirk Structural EngineersStructural Engineer (The Commons): Thornton TomasettiMEP Engineer: AMA Consulting EngineersCivil Engineer: LanganGeotechnical Engineer: Shannon & WilsonTraffic Engineer: Gibson Transportation ConsultingLandscape Architect: Field OperationsSustainability Consultant: Atelier TenAcoustic Consultant: SalterTheater Consultant: Fisher Dachs AssociatesLighting Consultant: Horton Lees BrogdenFire/Life Safety Consultant: ArupBuilding Envelope: Thornton TomasettiFacade Access: Lerch BatesWaterproofing: Wiss, Janney Elstner AssociatesAccessibility Consultant: Jensen HughesVertical Transportation Consultant: Edgett Williams Consulting GroupCommissioning Agent: Altura AssociatesPermit Expeditor: Kimberlina Whettam & AssociatesGeneral Contractor: Hathaway Dinwiddie ConstructionCMU Masonry: Angelus BlockMetal Panels: MetalWrksCurtain Wall: Kawneer, ArcadiaEIFS, ACM: DryvitMoisture Barrier: PerprufeGlazing: Guardian