As one of Los Angeles’ most prominent architecture firms, Sawtelle-based Nadel Architects has seen its fair share of internal evolution.

The company was founded in 1973 by Herb Nadel, originally as a sole practitioner during the boom of class A office development in Los Angeles. However, today under new leadership, the focus is on retail and mixed-use residential as its two main design verticals.

“That’s always been my kind of bias … (I’ve always) been interested in architecture from community building, from what it means contextually in this built environment that we live our lives in, and the real estate aspect of it,” said Greg Lyon, current chairman and president of Nadel Architects, who found architecture blended his two passions of fine arts and history into one meaningful profession. “I think that has had an impact on how I view what I do and what we do as architects.”

After Herb Nadel slowly transitioned out of his leadership role – officially stepping down as chief executive in 2020 – the firm shifted hands to Lyon and Patrick Winters. (Winters has since branched off to start his own firm.)

Nadel Architects primarily works throughout California – from Sacramento to San Diego – but the company also does design work nationally, with retail making up 50% of its current portfolio, multifamily accounting for 35% and the final 15% being a mixed bag of educational and public sector work. The firm is responsible for designing more than 2,000 buildings overall, including over 600 shopping centers, 400 office buildings and 90,000 residential units.

Over the years, Nadel has developed some notable projects throughout the city of Los Angeles.

This includes Freedom Plaza, a 115-square-foot retail shopping center in Watts; Azalea, a 32-acre retail center in South Gate; The Rise Hollywood and The Rise Koreatown, two large multifamily and retail mixed-use projects completed four years apart; and 317 Beverly, a 14,000-square-foot retail storefront located in Beverly Hills’ Golden Triangle.

Emphasis on retail

With more than 75 million square feet of retail space under the firm’s belt, it’s fair to consider Nadel to be quite the expert when it comes to retail design.

“Retail, to me, is really a very interesting asset class because it is where we spend our discretionary time as Americans,” Lyon said. “I see it as part of the fabric of the placemaking that we build our lives within.”

Scott Burns, a senior managing director at Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., echoed that sentiment.

“Retail plays a huge role (in our society),” said Burns, who has specialized in retail leasing for more than 17 years. “It’s not only where people go to acquire their necessity items, their daily needs items like the grocery store and services they need from trimming their hair to medical-related items…entertainment is a big part of what people enjoy about retail.”

For Nadel, the trick lies in creating experiences in order to make the brick-and-mortar shopping experience more desirable, particularly with the impact and the disruption that online shopping has had on the asset class. This can include amenities such as dog parks, water features, outdoor living rooms, parks, wall art and more.

“I think (particularly) with the influx of Pacific Rim culture, I think we have many multigenerational households right now,” Lyon said. “When people go out on the weekends, they (often) go out with the grandparents, the parents, the children, so you want to think about how those generations are going to interact and enjoy themselves in that setting.”

Investing into the community

With this drive for being a community-facing firm, Lyon said Nadel takes its time on projects to really understand the ethos of each neighborhood it works with so that the firm ensures it is staying true to the city’s fabric, while still supporting its own real estate goals.

“I think the most important thing with community in Los Angeles is to understand you need to step back,” Lyon said. “Because I think often architects can jump into a formal exercise like ‘let’s make a cool building,’ ‘let’s make this a new design’ – and I think those are not the first questions that you need to ask.”

One of Nadel’s most longstanding developer clients, Culver City-based Primestor Development Inc., thinks very similarly. The two first collaborated in the 1990s when Primestor was just getting into retail development.

“At the time, we were still learning how to develop retail shopping centers and Nadel had been a recognized leader in that design space,” said Leandro Tyberg, president of Primestor. “Getting a chance to work with and learn from them really made a very indelible impression on me personally as well as the trajectory of our career.”

Since then, Primestor and Nadel have developed more than 1 million square feet of projects together over the course of two and a half decades – ranging from small neighborhood service centers to regional retail powerhouses – including both Azalea and Freedom Plaza.

“Both of those are very community oriented,” Tyberg said. “Both projects were named by the community…both project logos were created by the community and the design that Nadel created was a reflection of what the community wanted to see.”

Lyon added: “Those are the types of projects we’re really proud of because they redefine communities. They respond to the aspirations and authenticity of those communities.”

Now, the two are pairing back up to develop Amara, a roughly 40-acre shopping center off U.S. Route 101, which is being anchored by a Costco Wholesale Corp. store in Camarillo.

“Nadel has really understood our company culture and the way we like to do things …which is very community-centric and really tries to go deep into the culture and psychology of the community to make something very unique happen,” Tyberg said.

Expanding its design capabilities

Despite its retail edge, Nadel has decided to double down on two distinct asset type verticals – multifamily and placemaking projects – presumably to stay well rounded and offer perspective to the genres most critically in need.

“We are always looking at areas where there’s opportunity for growth, and we believe we can make a difference in Los Angeles,” Lyon said. “We’re clearly facing a housing shortage in Los Angeles, and it needs to be addressed.”

To do its part in making this difference, Nadel recently onboarded Martin Leitner, the firm’s new principal and director of multifamily and urban infill housing, who will work to resolve challenges related to issues such as affordable housing and sustainability.

Leitner also serves as the co-chair mobility council at the Urban Land Institute Los Angeles and is a big advocate for transit-oriented communities and pushing forward conversations of how Los Angeles can realistically integrate them.

The other vertical, dubbed Third Space, refers to a recent internal studio collaboration venture between Nadel and veteran architect John Simones established to create large-scale niche locations that go beyond the traditional boundaries of retail and entertainment. According to Lyon, these would typically encompass mixed-use destination projects that would have some sort of tourism, hospitality, cultural or museum element to them.

“We believe that there’s an opportunity in Los Angeles for that type of work,” Lyon said. “It’s interesting to see what’s going to happen for the Olympics and (whether) Los Angeles think(s) big enough yet. I think the goal of that studio is to say, ‘Well maybe we can think a little bigger when it comes to what Los Angeles wants to be when it grows up.’”

In support of steady growth

In the meantime, Nadel is focused on sustainable, responsible growth – both regionally and nationally – as it hopes to maintain its status of being an influential community firm.

“Nadel is a legacy company in the city of Los Angeles,” Lyon said. “It’s been around for 53 years, which is unbelievable. If you drive through Los Angeles, you can literally say every other block, ‘That’s a Nadel building,’ long before I was part of this over the last 17 years, and I think we’ve successfully transitioned the firm from Herb (Nadel) to the next generation of owners, me being part of this second generation.”

In 2020, Nadel opened a second office in Scottsdale, Arizona, which is responsible for the majority of the firm’s national portfolio. That includes doing the national storefront design work for retailers such as Arc’teryx, Aritzia and Sprouts Farmers Markets. Nadel is also keen on expanding its Arizona presence and into new markets.

In terms of its design pipeline, the firm is currently working on finishing up the retail portion of The Rise Koreatown. They’re also constructing Delevan Drive Elementary School, a new 25,000-square-foot, 15-classroom building with an integrated lunch shelter in Eagle Rock; and Central Plaza, a 16-acre site that includes the repositioning of a large existing suburban retail center in Camarillo.

“For me, right now, my objective is to create this next generation of leaders to take this firm to the next set of thought leaders and shareholders,” Lyon said. “And it seems that the zeitgeist of the firm is to remain an impactful entity in Los Angeles and to really focus on being part of the dialogue of making Los Angeles the great city that it is and that it should evolve into continually into the future.”