Studio-MLA is a landscape architecture and urban design firm led by Mia Lehrer, a Salvadorian American landscape architect who strives to connect humans with nature. The firm specializes in large-scale, master-planned environments and has been behind some of the most notable developments in Los Angeles including Dodger Stadium, SoFi Stadium and the upcoming Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.
Founded downtown in 1997, Studio-MLA temporarily resided in Koreatown before settling in Boyle Heights in 2015. The company continues to have a substantial roster of projects downtown and serves as the landscape architect behind two of the biggest active projects in the Arts District: 670 Mesquit by Vella Group and East End Studios’ new ADLA campus.
The Business Journal sat down with Lehrer, as well as Studio-MLA Senior Associates Eden Ferry and Alex San Diego, to discuss the firm’s pipeline and Studio-MLA’s hyper-local approach when it comes to design.
Mia, how did you get started in landscape architecture and what led you to found Studio-MLA?
Lehrer: I went to college on the East Coast at Tufts University. My favorite professor was a geology professor, and that geology professor was coteaching classes at a couple other colleges in Cambridge. It was through that work that I ended up at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in a coteaching program they had, and I learned about landscape architecture.
I saw the drawings of Frederick Law Olmsted exhibited on the walls of the library and the librarian explained to me that (landscape architecture) was a profession that I didn’t know about. That’s how I got started in my studies and then moved to the West Coast. Originally, I was working for a firm in San Francisco that had a small office (in Los Angeles). I was first doing residential work and then doing cultural work, and then I was honored to work on Barnsdall Art Park and Union Station, the two gardens on either side. I realized, ‘wow I can do so many more things,’ and that’s when I started the studio.
What is urban design and how does it feed into the overall development of a project?
Ferry: I think for me, landscape architecture is identifying the place, embedding it into the project, the space, kind of utilizing the outdoor environment and ecologies and bringing them into the urban environment. Sometimes that means public parks, sometimes that means advocacy around the Los Angeles River, creating outdoor terraces on projects on the 38th floor or just providing green infrastructure, street trees that provide shade, habitat creation, anything in the outdoors.
670 Mesquit is one of the biggest active projects in the Arts District. What can you tell me about its design?
Lehrer: This project has been the labor of passion for both the developer and the design team. It’s (being planned by) the Gallo Family and some funders from other parts of the country. It includes about 1,000 units total, a hotel, a charter school, some retail space – and that means restaurants and gallery spaces – and office. The scale is fantastic.
Ferry: It’s going to have this cultural infusion into the site that will draw visitors to the Los Angeles River. The neighborhood itself right now doesn’t have a space where you can actually see the river and interact with it, due to the rail lines along the edges. The river deck at Mesquit will actually bring folks to the closest point of the river that you can get to and they have done tremendous work to get that element on the site – between the structural coordination with the rail lines, the easements, both air and land – it’ll become just this incredible neighborhood asset that will be a cultural destination for the city.
Alex, I know you’re leading the landscape design of East End’s $1 billion ADLA campus. How do you juggle the harmony of 1.28 million square feet and 16 soundstages?
San Diego: It’s a combination of a lot of things. Our client, East End Capital, is developing four studios in the Los Angeles area so definitely that’s their business and we have to respect and know what their business will bring with the uses that they intend for studios to have. But at the same time, we want to incorporate (placemaking) in designing, creating these spaces.
It’s a massive 15-acre site, but we have to create an environment on all levels where it would be friendly to not just the end-users, whoever’s facing the studios, but also the community at large. We definitely know what it is from the client’s point of view, but, from our end, creating those experiences by improving the landscape components and trying to bring in the sustainability guidelines that the state and the city has been trying to push forward.
Studio-MLA also completed the design of Hauser + Wirth, a contemporary art complex in the Arts District, in 2018. Are there any design elements you’re particularly proud of?
Lehrer: Well, we have this big oak tree. Everybody was saying that the oak tree wouldn’t do well in the middle of the city, but you go there now and it’s one big, beautiful oak tree. And when it arrived on the site with the crane, there were birds following the truck – it was amazing. We (also) planted a lot of interesting cactuses as a sort of art moment for ourselves – large agaves and yuccas. They’ve grown really well and now it’s become a destination for wedding pictures. I love that fact.
Ferry: What’s really wonderful about the Hauser + Wirth site is that it embeds this unique character to the Arts District, where there’s all these kinds of small, hidden, open spaces, and they’re just kind of tucked into each corner. And Hauser + Wirth extends that legacy of the neighborhood by creating this really unique courtyard and having that sculptural specimen garden in the front. And then once you get into the courtyard, a lot of those materials that were used in the design are local, including the benches that were created by Angel City Lumber, which is just down the street from our studio in Boyle Heights. Utilizing local craftsmanship for the art gallery as well was really a great experience on that project.
How do you approach urban design when working on such a vast array of asset types?
Ferry: I think in all of our projects, regardless of type, we always try to embed a story and narrative into the design that helps us make decisions along the way. For a lot of our projects, we try to look at the history of the site (and the) history of the ecology of the area and embed that into the design. Mesquit, for example, is inspired by the Los Angeles River. SoFi Stadium is inspired by the tectonic shifting of the region. Looking at the natural world and (seeing) how we can embed those into our designs and these contemporary, urban spaces.
How have you seen the Arts District evolve overtime? And how do you think Studio-MLA has played a part in its evolution?
Lehrer: I personally think the Arts District is in the making. I would think Hauser + Wirth added energy to the place.
San Diego: The Arts District, from my experience with it, has evolved over the years and it’s changed. It’s become a little bit more welcoming in a way and then definitely a lot more livable to a wider audience. And with these projects, I think we’re contributing to all that it’s offering – creating spaces for people to actually live and habituate.
What else are you working on throughout Los Angeles?
San Diego: For me, the work that I’m involved with is all very local, which is great. There is East End (and 670 Mesquit) in the Arts District, but beyond that, we have efforts here in our immediate neighborhood in Boyle Heights that hits very close to home. Someone in our office is working on the Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sunset Mausoleum, (which is) something that we’ve been working on the past few years. Most projects are within driving distance of our office. That’s one of the things that I think I personally like about Studio-MLA because a lot of what we do here, at least in the Los Angeles office, is very reachable.
