USC's School of Cinematic Arts is setting up a new production center in University Park. 

The Blavatnik Center for Virtual Production, announced last year, is named for the Blatvanik Family Foundation which donated $25-million toward the project. The new 20,000-square-foot building would replace an existing surface parking lot at 625 W. 32nd Street, sandwiched between the existing USC Cinematic Arts Center and the Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts. Inside, plans call for two stages with wraparound LED panel walls, performance capture, camera tracking, and lighting systems. Plans also call for classrooms and labs with 3D design software.

Bastien and Associates, Inc. is designing the project, which is depicted in renderings as a contemporary two-story structure clad in painted plaster and metal. Courtyards would separate the new construction from the existing buildings to the east and west.

Aerial view looking northwestBastien & Associates Inc.

Approval of the project will require adoption of a general plan amendment and a zone change, among other discretionary entitlements, by the City of Los Angeles.

The School of Cinematic Art's outpost along 32nd Street most recently expanded in 2016, with the relocation of a decommissioned LAFD fire station which became the Zemeckis Center.

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