A joint venture between West Los Angeles-based McCarthy Cook & Co. and Denver-based Northwood Investors is a few weeks away from debuting Lumen West L.A., an experiential office campus designed with natural light in mind.
The 550,000-square-foot complex covers a 3.6-acre city block in the heart of West Los Angeles on West Olympic Boulevard, just one-half block from Sawtelle-Japantown.
Lumen comes loaded with amenities designed to attract and retain a flexible workforce, including a private rooftop event, workspace, and entertainment pavilion; outdoor meeting cabanas; terraces with city views; a Japanese-inspired Biergarten; exhibition kitchen; firepits; sport courts; and fitness areas. Lumen offers 65,000 square feet of private outdoor space, including West LA’s largest private event rooftop deck, one that can host 2,200 people.
“The vision for Lumen was a natural light-infused workplace with unrivaled outdoor amenities and services to inspire creative employers to attract and retain a creative workforce in a holistic campus environment that enhances health, wellness, collaboration, and company culture,” Edward Cook III, co-president of McCarthy Cook & Co., said in a statement. “Lumen defines the future of the Los Angeles workplace. In a city where tech, media, and entertainment intersect, Lumen provides a place where creative people can thrive.”
Structurally, this was not a ground-up build. Breaking ground in February 2020 — just before the pandemic broke out — the Lumen project bridged together a pair of buildings contructed in 1983, tearing off the stone and granite exterior and replacing it with glass.
“The vision for the asset was that this was to be workplace illuminated,” Cook said. “The modern workforce wants to be connected to the outside world and values outdoor light. We pushed extremely hard, traveled around the world to find the technology that would accomplish both energy efficiency and essentially floor-to-ceiling glass.”
The developers imported triple pane, double airgap building glass from Germany.
“It is among the flattest glass on Earth and it is also thicker than normal,” Cook said.
“One of our goals was to be a leading building environmentally,” Cook said. “Every single system in the building is brand new and is to the highest standard of energy efficiency and environmental impact.”
The complex also has a water-reclamation system. “All the rainwater is collected in the building,” Cook said. “Gray water is processed and reused.”
Mike Coppin, senior vice president of leasing and marketing at McCarthy Cook, added that, “The word lumen is the Greek word for light. Luminescence. It’s really about bringing natural light and infusing the workplace with natural light.”
With 10 full floors across two towers, the building has been designed for creative workplaces such as media, entertainment, and technology companies.
“They want to be spread horizontally,” Coppin said. “They don’t want to be taking elevators in a vertical high-rise tower like they do in downtown L.A. They want to be in a place where they can walk from department to department and collaborate, have more social interactions and so forth.”
The developers incorporated some Japanese flourishes into the project
“Our approach with developments tend to be community-oriented,” Cook said. “In this case, we’re very extremely proud to be a part of the Sawtelle Japantown vibe. That vibe creates an environment for our customers that really doesn’t exist in many places in L.A. I liken it to New York, where you have Greenwich Village. You have unique cultural and restaurant and entertainment amenities around. We have this incredible opportunity to leverage all of the food offerings and the vibe of Sawtelle Japantown.”
Coppin added that the complex includes a dog park and Japanese-themed park.
