PUMA’s new hub in Los Angeles is more than an office. The clients told West of West “they were interested in exploring ideas beyond the traditional notions of a workplace,” explained Jai Kumaran, partner of the architecture firm. PUMA’s interests lie in inhabiting a space that can work as a catalyst for cultural production and experimentation, a place to tinker on designs hands-on. Excited by the creative freedom of implementing more novel programming, West of West delivered a vertical campus whose swanky interiors belie the commercial office typology and fit alongside prototyping labs.
The nontraditional approach begins with the structure itself. West of West added onto an existing building on a corner lot to create the campus, designing the volume of cross-laminated timber and steel to read as a residential building. Terraced facades and an exterior staircase wrapped in vertical scrim, where the new build meets the old, scale the adaptive reuse effort to coincide with the neighboring buildings.
PUMA occupies the top two floors of the building. The first acts as a more public-facing level, where the showroom, kitchen, bar, lounge, and entertainment are held. Go another level up to ascend in the tiers of privacy. Office spaces, workshops, and conference rooms make up the next floor. This floor also includes an isolated room with humidity control that houses 3D printing machines, DTG printer, laser cutter, and an insulated and venting operating spray room. The programming allows designers to craft ideas in real life, as well as collaborate on ideas digitally with cameras and digital whiteboards to live-sketch with teams in Germany or the east coast.
The two levels are tied together by a sculptural staircase. “Pretty immediately we came up with this idea of referencing fabric, the softness of fabric or ribbon, as well as the CLT of the existing building,” Kumaran told AN Interior. “So we wanted this flowing wood stair that was ribbon-like as it extended between the two floors.”
Materials help translate the shift between rooms and functions. More wood, glass, stone, and concrete make up the base of the material palette, tying back into the construction of the building itself and emphasizing the areas where the structural elements are left exposed. To warm them up, a bounty of fabrics are used, another tie into the story of PUMA.
In the library, for instance, a deep teal sofa snakes through the room foregrounding rows of millwork shelving. The sculptural seating and color feel more akin to a residence than an office, carrying the concept of the facade inside. In other places, brown upholstery and curtains set a cozy scene and soft seating amid pivot doors that double as magazine stands feel reminiscent of swanky music studios of yore.
West of West collaborated with designer Lindsey Chan on the furniture selections, apart from the custom pieces the architects designed themselves. The different rooms shift in color and texture, from all-black conference rooms to the translucent panels that diffuse light or partition spaces. Each are united by rich and lush palette that ties the program together while dividing the space into distinct zones.