With the placement of the final steel beam earlier this month, construction has topped off at Echelon Studios Hollywood.

Aerial view looking southeastHunter Kerhart Architectural Photography

The project, a joint venture between Bardas Investment Group and Bain Capital Real Estate, spans a full city block at 5601 W. Santa Monica Boulevard. When completed, the more than 500,000-square-foot development will include:

  • 110,000 square feet of production studios and support space;
  • approximately 388,000 square feet of offices;
  • over 12,300 square feet of ground-floor restaurant space; and
  • parking for 981 vehicles in two subterranean levels.

Rios is designing the project, which includes six-story office buildings fronting the site's southeast and southwest corners, with soundstages located between. Heights scale down toward Virginia Avenue to the north, where a series of terrace decks further reduce the mass of the building.

View of Echelon Studios from Virginia Avenue looking southeast toward Downtown Los AngelesBob Hale / Rios

Bain Capital and Bardas formed their joint venture in 2019, and have announced plans for more than 1 million square feet of new studio developments. The joint venture is also slated to build new offices and soundstages at the Television Center complex in Hollywood.

Those ambitious plans came about at a time of robust demand for soundstages in the Los Angeles area, as studios spent heavily on content to fill new streaming services. Six years later, the pullback in local production has resulted in a glut of space.

All photography courtesy of Hunter Kerhart Architectural Photography - visit www.HunterKerhart.com for more architectural imagery.

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