Creative energy: a family of warehouses form LA's La Kretz Innovation Campus

Back in 2011, California’s legislature shut down Los Angeles’s Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA/LA). The move seemingly ended the then-promising vision for the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI), a CRA-managed start-up space for green businesses in the city’s quickly emerging Arts District. But thanks to the LA Department of Water and Power, which stepped in to manage the project – and now has offices, labs and demonstration spaces here – the Incubator, now part of what’s called the La Kretz Innovation Campus, is open for business. While most of its tenants have already moved in, its official grand opening is pegged for 7 October.
The 61,000 sq ft facility, built into eight merged brick warehouses that John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects revamped and stabilised, is the physical embodiment of the innovative energy that’s pulsing through the neighborhood. While the area is generally known for art (hence the name), there’s a steady flow of entrepreneurship here. Some are touting it as the East Side equivalent of what’s been labeled 'Silicon Beach' on LA’s West Side.
Inside are flexible, open areas designed to spur communication and collaboration. The concept, explain the architects, is that of an open, entrepreneurial village, connected by narrow streets – aka walkways – all under massive bow truss ceilings, lit by copious skylights and solar tubes. Amid that are a central meeting space, maker labs and a lot of sculptural moments, delineating varied spaces and reflecting a young, maker culture. A giant green wall in the entrance lobby, manufactured by GSky Plant Systems, consists of pockets containing myriad plants; while the lobby desk is a curved, heat-formed Corian structure.
More than 30 businesses and non-profits offer solutions for solar, water, wind, battery and other energy systems as well as planning and urban life challenges. And since the building is dedicated to clean energy, it’s not surprising that it’s aiming for a LEED Platinum rating, with strategies like adaptive reuse, copious natural light, high efficiency energy and water equipment, a photovoltaic parking lot array, green walls, and bioswales to collect stormwater. Outside, John Friedman Alice Kimm worked with LA Bureau of Engineering Landscape architect Rick Fisher to complete a new one-acre park – consisting of small plazas – which will give the Arts District some sorely needed green space.
'It’s tech, sustainability, community, and culture all coming together,' says Alice Kimm. 'The place is just buzzing with interaction.'
The 61,000 sq ft facility sits in eight revamped and merged brick warehouses
Inside, areas are designed to be flexible and open plan, to encourage collaboration and communication
The concept, explain the architects, is that of an open, entrepreneurial village, connected by narrow streets or walkways
Unsurprisingly, the building is aiming for a LEED Platinum rating, working with strategies such as adaptive reuse, copious natural light, and high efficiency energy and water equipment
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects website
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
The Sinclair name is back, attached to a pocket-sized games console with an educational edge
Grant Sinclair’s name is freighted with early computing history. Wallpaper* tapped up the British inventor to find out more about his new GamerCard console and other innovation
-
Beloved sushi restaurant Sōgo Roll Bar comes to Highland Park
The sushi hangout begins a new chapter in its second location, becoming the perfect spot for a quick grab-and-go or a relaxed tasting experience in east LA
-
Japanese designer Shinichiro Ogata's latest venture is a modern riff on the traditions of his home country
As he launches Saboe, a series of new tearooms and shops across Japan, we delve into Shinichiro Ogata's creative vision, mirrored throughout the spaces and objects, rituals and moments of his projects
-
A 432 Park Avenue apartment is an art-filled family home among the clouds
At 432 Park Avenue, inside and outside compete for starring roles; welcome to a skyscraping, art-filled apartment in Midtown Manhattan
-
Discover this sleek-but-warm sanctuary in the heart of the Wyoming wilds
This glorious wood-and-stone residence never misses a chance to show off the stirring landscape it calls home
-
Inside a Montana house, putting the American West's landscape at its heart
A holiday house in the Montana mountains, designed by Walker Warner Architects and Gachot Studios, scales new heights to create a fresh perspective on communing with the natural landscape
-
The great American museum boom
Nine of the world’s top ten most expensive, recently announced cultural projects are in the US. What is driving this investment, and is this statistic sustainable?
-
Peel back this Michigan lakeside house’s cool slate exterior to reveal a warm wooden home
In Detroit, Michigan, this lakeside house, a Y-shaped home by Disbrow Iannuzzi Architects, creates a soft balance between darkness and light through its minimalist materiality
-
Inside the new theatre at Jacob’s Pillow and its ‘magic box’, part of a pioneering complex designed for dance
Jacob’s Pillow welcomes the reborn Doris Duke Theatre by Mecanoo, a new space that has just opened in the beloved Berkshires cultural hub for the summer season
-
A Rancho Mirage home is in tune with its location and its architect-owners’ passions
Architect Steven Harris and his collaborator and husband, designer Lucien Rees Roberts, have built a home in Rancho Mirage, surrounded by some of America’s most iconic midcentury modern works; they invited us on a tour
-
Inside Frank Lloyd Wright’s Laurent House – a project built with accessibility at its heart
The dwelling, which you can visit in Illinois, is a classic example of Wright’s Usonian architecture, and was also built for a client with a disability long before accessibility was widely considered