Design

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By DAVID DRUM

Contributing Reporter

It’s not just boring old industrial space anymore.

With the Los Angeles economy in high gear, developers and architects who specialize in warehouses, assembly plants and distribution facilities have been spiffing up their acts.

“Ten years ago, we built big boxes and put a painted stripe on them,” says Herb Nadel, president and CEO of Nadel Architects Inc. in West Los Angeles. “Now there’s an awareness of the architecture. When I meet with my clients I tell them they are the modern Medicis. Today, architecture is a form of art.”

Don Nevins, vice president of McClier, an architectural firm specializing in manufacturing and distribution centers, also sees a shift away from the ubiquitous “dumb boxes.” Nevins estimates that a decade ago, only 10 percent to 20 percent of L.A.-area industrial facilities employed architects and industrial engineers in the development process. Today, the figure is placed at more than 50 percent.

Such design improvements generally add 10 percent to 15 percent to the cost of a small building (but a lower percentage for larger projects).

Why the sprucing up? Some cite the global marketplace. In years gone by, local companies were familiar with the quality of an industrial tenant’s product or service. So a shabby-looking building was unimportant. Today, with so many potential clients coming from overseas, an impressive-looking building can be an important lure.

Another consideration is functionality. Among the most sought-after features are 30-foot ceilings, state-of-the-art fire suppression systems and accommodations for intermodal and other transportation systems.

Zero Stantron had its Valencia facility designed with a 120-foot turning radius between the building and curb to accommodate the biggest trucks allowed by law.

Even the tight labor market is a factor in making industrial buildings more aesthetically pleasing. “These days, companies need to attract and keep skilled workers,” Nevins said. “Who wants to work inside a concrete box?”

George Jones, president of TA Manufacturing, says labor considerations figured in his company’s decision to add an extra 10 percent to the cost of its Valencia facility which includes an Art Deco-influenced lobby with floor-to-ceiling windows, a lunchroom festooned with brilliant reds and yellows, and a color-coordinated factory featuring blue floor and beige machines. A liberal use of windows provides “a unity between plant and office,” Jones said.

“It will be easier for us to recruit if applicants see that this is a first-class organization and a great environment to work in,” Jones said. “We need a world-class image because we’re servicing clients like Boeing and Rolls Royce.”

And since the line between industrial and office space keeps blurring, today’s industrial buildings must be designed to accommodate all kinds of environments.

High-tech tenants and other non-traditional users of industrial space are requesting skylights, two-story atrium space, dramatic stairwells and gardens, as well as floor designs that allow them to track each manufactured item by computer from start to finish to assure quality.

Nevins points to Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc.’s corporate headquarters in Torrance, which includes a data center, food-service center and parts-distribution facility. Outside is a 120-foot diameter California garden, ringed by a 10-foot-high stone wall, which includes 30-foot cedar trees as well as a stream, rocks, shrubbery and other landscaping.

Even Toyota’s Ontario warehouse has architectural details and glass-block towers that are illuminated at night. Like its Torrance headquarters, it includes a Japanese garden that encircles the building.

Industrial developers are making increasing use of landscape architects to install lush interior and exterior landscaping, often carefully backlit to express the character of the company even at night, Nadel said.

Nadel points to the 60,000-square-foot Singapore Airlines cargo handling facility at LAX, now under construction, where the building’s metal-covered parapets suggest the shape of an airline wing, and office space in the center of the building suggests a control tower.

Also, Nadel cites a 200,000-square-foot warehouse and storage facility for Fuji Film in Cypress, developed as a “build to suit” with exterior wall windows shaped like film sprockets, and an enclosed glass center which suggests a film spool. In addition, he says, an 85,000-square-foot warehouse built for Mary Kaye Cosmetics, also in Cypress, has soft, feminine exterior and interior forms to suggest the business inside.

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