Howard Building Corporation our-work
SAE Institute
Hollywood
40,000 Sq.ft.
IA
Project Description
SAE Institute is one of the world’s leading educators in the creative media industries and has 53 campuses in 27 countries. 1100 students are enrolled at seven U.S. campuses located in Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, Nashville, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, and each location offers unique courses designed to prepare students for various professions in the creative media realm.
The Los Angeles campus offers an Audio Technology Diploma program, a Beat Lab Production certificate, and an Electronic Music Production certificate.
To provide the most technologically advanced education for its students, SAE Institute sought to update and expand its facilities and worked with architects at IA and Howard Building Corporation (HBC) to move its Los Angeles location from a 20,000 square foot space in an office building to a larger 40,000 square foot facility occupying two buildings that were previously the Hollywood offices of the Eastman Kodak Company. In addition to upgrading its space, the school wanted to create more of a campus environment, which the Kodak location provided.
The smaller of the two buildings on the lot was originally built in 1929 by Kodak and was renovated to house the Institute’s five new classrooms, a 44 seat viewing theater, administrative offices, meeting rooms with advanced audio visual capabilities, and a central open air courtyard. Polished concrete floors and multi-color carpet tiles update the space, while the lobby and entry stairway were fully restored to maintain the historic integrity of the building. The original painted beams and ceiling in the lobby and the curved wood stairwell leading to the second floor were preserved.
The Institute’s second space occupies 21,000 square feet of an 86,000 square foot multi-tenant production warehouse on the lot. The sound, dubbing, recording and production studios at the heart of the hands-on curriculum of the school reside in this warehouse, adding a raw creative element to the campus. To create a defined entrance to the studio space, one portion of the original warehouse exterior was demolished and incorporated into the adjacent loading dock area with new concrete stairs, millwork wood slats, wrought iron gates, polycarbonate exterior windows and new lighting. The newly enclosed entrance also allows for an exterior seating area.
The interior is divided between a 15 foot tall space near the entry and a 30 foot tall space further inside, both with exposed deck, spiral ductwork and pendant light fixtures. A resource center with 12 individual workstations, equipment rental and offices, and a small kitchen reside in the 15 foot space, while the actual studio suites sit atop 10,000 square feet of raised flooring in the 30 foot space. The studios are constructed as independent structures framed with structural steel and clad in sheetrock. Each studio is an isolated unit with individual electrical and climate controls and STC rated walls, doors and windows. Extensive structural work was completed to support the deck above to allow extensive upgrades to the roof equipment that supplies the HVAC to the studios and the rest of the space.
Wall graphics and quotations throughout the space reflect the philosophy of the school, and colorful millwork seating areas further enhance the environment. Polished concrete floors add to the raw feeling, while carpet tiles define the raised floor areas and communal seating areas. Studio suites have wood floors and geometric acoustic wall panels installed, and recessed wall lighting features and applied dimensional detailing along the hallways between the suites compliment the design elements in the space.