All Def Digital Offices – Los Angeles
IA Interior Architects designed the new headquarters for media company All Def Digital, located in Los Angeles, California.
Founded in 2013 and based in Los Angeles, California, All Def Digital is an urban youth culture, music, comedy, and media company founded by hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons. The workforce includes writers, actors, musicians, and digital artists. With their cross-platform audience rapidly growing, All Def Digital was in need of a new headquarters in which to create original content for distribution through their own media properties, social channels, live events, and brand partnerships.
The space they selected is in the development core of downtown Los Angeles, across from the Staples Center and LA Live, and encompasses 25,000 square feet over two floors. The new scheme for All Def Digital’s space contains a workspace floor on the first level, which includes the executive offices and meeting rooms, as well as production and post-production facilities. The second level serves as the lab floor, housing the sound stages and workshops that support the production team, as well as an artist-in-residence workspace and gallery
The design team wanted to give All Def Digital a living, breathing, working environment to reflect the constant hustle and energy of the ADD team. The challenge was to design a cohesive headquarters where every step of the creative process could happen in-house – from ideation to set-building to digital production and editing.
Their new space is located in an adaptive reuse project with deep floorplates, 13-foot-high ceilings, and windows at nearly the entire perimeter. The design team let the rawness of the building and its bones inform the subdivision of the space as well as the materials palette. The space is intentionally bare capturing the scrappy startup vibe of the company; ceilings and concrete floors were left relatively untouched. Offices and meeting rooms were inserted between columns and given glass fronts on which ideas and sketches are commonly drawn. Punctuations of color come in the form of accent furniture pieces, gallery walls of art from Russell Simmons’ own collection, and a giant mural painted by local street artist Blue the Great.
Groups of workstations that make up the open office “bullpen” march down the center of the floorplate, interspersed with shared work tables and pull-up seating for on-demand use. The collaborative space options include a café, meeting rooms, smaller focus rooms, recording studios, talent lounge, and a screening room. No area is sacred, and every space can become a set depending on what the content creators conceive of next.
Collaboration was key to the design process. Key team members from All Def Digital were frequent and involved partners of the design team. Their influence and brand vision for ADD helped to inform many design decisions, from space planning to finishes to branded applications of color and logo.
The project also involved collaboration between design team members and various consultants including lighting design, furniture, workplace planning and programming, and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing design. The design of all systems centered on flexibility for filming within the space – including reconfiguration of furniture systems, and controllability of lighting and air conditioning.
The finished result is a unique atmosphere derived from both the All Def Digital brand and image, and the dynamism of their workflow.
Designer: IA Interior Architects
Design Team: Alison Selby, Carlos Gutierrez
Contractor: Onni Group
Photography: Benny Chan
