The Lighthouse mixes brutalist architecture and contemporary notions of flexibility and collaboration to form Los Angeles’ newest creative hub. Set in an existing building, the 1939-designed Venice Post Office, just one block off the famed Venice Beach Boardwalk, the project was conceived to occupy the liminal space between softness and a robust, industrial-style approach; historical preservation and 21st-century innovation and lifestyle.
The Lighthouse: step inside this brutalist LA office
Its author is Warkentin Associates, headed by former Studio Shamshiri designer Nathan Warkentin. 'I was approached by Lighthouse founder Jon Goss to collaborate with him in creating a “campus” for creators with the opportunity to design a whole world from scratch,' he says.
Warkentin drew on the original art deco structure and the building's bones, and looked to the Bauhaus movement to further develop his design. 'Inspired by Bauhaus principles, the architectural design facilitates a fluid integration of analogue and digital environments, enabling frictionless creativity across multiple disciplines,' says Lighthouse co-founder Jon Goss. 'By reimagining a landmark site for a new generation, The Lighthouse establishes a dynamic setting that fosters experimentation, connectivity, and creative expression at every scale.'
Tackling the fairly raw space, the team got to work and designed much of the interiors using custom pieces, mixed with iconic designs by USM, Artek, Vitra, Herman Miller, Tecta, Emeco, and OMK. The designers wanted to craft a workspace that feels real and tangible, bringing in references such as the aesthetics of nineties college radio, Le Corbusier's architecture, Japanese libraries, and Paul Rudolph.
At the same time, The Lighthouse composes the feeling of a hospitality-led environment that blurs the boundaries between work and social areas. A material palette that mixes metals, wood, glass and concrete inspires juxtapositions of crisp and soft areas that create a lively and engaging office setting. A monumental painting, Abbot Kinney and the Story of Venice, created by Edward Biberman in 1941, was brought back to its original lobby location after a stint at LACMA.
Describing the project in a single sentence, Warkentin says it is 'a fluid blend of innovation, collaboration, and production in a space inspired by Bauhaus principles'.
-
Bocci and Anna Carnick join forces on a showcase of evocative design practices in Berlin'Crafting Community' is on view at Berlin's Wilhelm Hallen until 14 September 2025
-
The story behind a one-of-a-kind Dieter Rams handbag, reborn by German leather brand TsatsasA new exhibition at Vitsœ’s London store celebrates the ‘931’ bag, designed by Dieter Rams for his wife Ingeborg in 1963 and reborn over half a century later in a collaboration between Rams and German leather accessories brand Tsatsas
-
A Miami pied-à-terre channels Art Deco glamour and endless summerInterior designer Olga Malyev reimagines a South of Fifth apartment with bold colour, vintage treasures and a sunlit spirit that captures Miami’s timeless allure
-
A Tokyo home’s mysterious, brutalist façade hides a secret urban retreatDesigned by Apollo Architects, Tokyo home Stealth House evokes the feeling of a secluded resort, packaged up neatly into a private residence
-
A brutalist mosque explores light and spirituality in tropical KeralaThis brutalist mosque by studio Common Ground explores concrete forms and top light as a symbol of spirituality in tropical, southern India
-
Meet Studio Zewde, the Harlem practice that's creating landscapes 'rooted in cultural narratives, ecology and memory'Ahead of a string of prestigious project openings, we check in with firm founder Sara Zewde
-
The best of California desert architecture, from midcentury gems to mirrored dwellingsWhile architecture has long employed strategies to cool buildings in arid environments, California desert architecture developed its own distinct identity –giving rise, notably, to a wave of iconic midcentury designs
-
A restored Eichler home is a peerless piece of West Coast midcentury modernismWe explore an Eichler home, and Californian developer Joseph Eichler’s legacy of design, as a fine example of his progressive house-building programme hits the market
-
The Architecture Edit: Wallpaper’s houses of the monthWallpaper* has spotlighted an array of remarkable architecture in the past month – from a pink desert home to structures that appears to float above the ground. These are the houses and buildings that most captured our attention in August 2025
-
Meet the landscape studio reviving the eco-brutalist Barbican ConservatoryLondon-based Harris Bugg Studio is working on refreshing the Barbican Conservatory as part of the brutalist icon's ongoing renewal; we meet the landscape designers to find out more
-
African brutalism explored: from bold experimentation to uncertain futureDiscover the complex and manifold legacies of brutalist architecture in Africa with writer and curator Fabiola Büchele
