“A familiar thing seen in an unfamiliar context can become perceptually new as well as old.”
Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture
This idea informed Pugh + Scarpa’s award-winning remodel of an existing 1930’s Art Deco masonry building, in order to create a distinctive office and work space for Reactor Films, a production studio for TV commercials and music videos. Spatially and conceptually, the project revolves around a centrally located conference room, which re-occupies a used ocean shipping container purchased from the Long Beach shipping yard. The shipping container has been deconstructed to reveal a richly textured geometry of surfaces and voids, and transformed into a fully functional—yet show-stopping—conference room.
Positioned to engage the public street, the shipping container-turned-conference room elicits curiosity and admiration from passersby as well as visitors and clients. Like the 1930’s building that this project occupies, the recycled container is transformed and perceptually repositioned to capitalize on its inherent history. The treatment of the surrounding interior space provides a discreetly complementary backdrop. Echoing the container’s push and pull of interlocking surfaces, the open, airy space is given clean lines with intriguing built-in details. In commissioning Pugh + Scarpa, Reactor Films gained an inviting, engaging workplace with an utterly original twist.
Project Team
Pugh + Scarpa Architects (architect, engineer)
Richard Godfrey (light trough)
Dave Scott (custom steel fabrication)
BT Builders, Inc. (general contractor)
Marvin Rand (photography)
Awards
AIA National Honor Award, 2001
AIA California Council Award, 2001
AIA Los Angeles Honor Award, 2000
AIA Los Angeles Decade Award, 2006
Los Angeles Business Council Award, 2001
