New look for East End Studios Arts District campus

A draft environmental study published by the Department of City Planning unveils a new look for a large production campus planned at the intersection of 6th and Alameda Streets in the Arts District.

East End Studios, which acquired the 15-acre project site in 2022, is seeking city approvals to raze an existing industrial facility to clear the way for a new complex consisting of 300,000 square feet of offices, 70,000 square feet of studio support spaces, and 16 soundstages. Total plans call for 720,000 square feet of leasable space, including rooftop decks.

While Grimshaw Architects remains the design firm attached to the project, the look of the East End Studios Arts District campus has evolved since last seen in early 2023.

“From day one, we sought to deliver the most advanced, purpose-built project possible," said East End Studios managing partner Shep Wainwright in a news release. "After conversations with the City and the community, our team has advanced a design that builds on the merits of the previous iteration, while better aligning architecturally and operationally from a community-facing perspective."

The updated plan consolidates the project's office space into two buildings at the northeast and northwest corners of the site, at 6th Streets intersections with Mill Street and Alameda Street, respectively. Previously, soundstages were proposed for both corners.

“As studio buildings can create a lot of inactive street frontage, we re-examined how we are incorporating people-centered architectural design principles,” said Andrew Byrne, the managing partners of Grimshaw’s Los Angeles studio. “By positioning the office space on the most prominent corners, we have more than doubled the amount of activated street frontage, creating a more engaging streetscape for the community.”

Required approvals for the 6th and Alameda project include a conditional use permit and mandatory site plan review. East End Studios has estimated that more than 1,000 people could work within the complex.

The project is one of three potential studio campuses along the Alameda corridor in the southern Arts District. A couple blocks south at 8th Street, Atlas Capital Group is planning soundstages at the site of the former L.A. Times Olympic printing plant. Prologis has also considered building soundstages on a former Greyhound bus station that it owns at 7th Street.

East End Studios is already active in the surrounding area, having broken ground recently on a $230-million project across the Los Angeles River in Boyle Heights. Another project with 10 soundstages is in the pipeline for a site along San Fernando Road in Glendale.

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• East End Studios ADLA Campus (Urbanize LA)