22 California Buildings • Q2 2022
New Projects One-Time Orange County News Printing Plant Reinvented Through innovative adaptive reuse, the former Orange County newsroom and printing facility of the Los Angeles Times is now an expansive creative campus that maintains a majority of the existing, 450,000-square-foot plant structure while offering contemporary office space — thanks to the work of Del Amo Construction and Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects. Along with SteelWave and 5 Ronin, Phase 1 of The Press in Costa Mesa was recently completed.
Photo credit: Matthew Milllman.
Del Amo Construction served as the general contractor leading the transformation of The Press and bringing the vision of EYRC, SteelWave and 5 Ronin to life. A strategy of “selective subtraction” was utilized throughout the project to introduce daylight, fresh air, and views. This included the removal of roof panels and covering walls to expose the underlying skeletal structure. Elements such as canopies and monolithic concrete walls gesture to the origins of the former production space—an active newsroom and printing plant that operated from 1968 to 2010 and since decommissioned in 2014.
“The conversion of the former printing press facility into a modern, creative office campus was well-suited for our team’s depth of experience in the area of adaptive reuse,” said Mitch Hudson, Chief Operating Officer at Del Amo Construction. “It was a pleasure to collaborate with both EYRC and SteelWave. Our teams worked well together, along with our subcontractors, to come to creative solutions that ensured all of our goals were met within the established project budget.” The Del Amo Construction team, led by Hudson, closely coordinated with the development and design teams as well as the city and other government agencies to preserve the integrity of the original site while bringing it up to today’s health, safety and building code standards. This included significant remediation from ink and fuel tanks that were found on the site as well as ensuring the entire property was compliant with all current ADA requirements. “The Press is a human-scaled, creative campus with a rich history, positioned at the heart of Orange County’s newly energized business corridor,” said EYRC Partner Patricia Rhee, FAIA. “It’s so exciting to see the transformation of The Press and how it’s signaling a new life for this massive industrial complex — its emergence from years of disrepair.”
La Jolla Arts and Cultural Museum Expanded Overlooking the Pacific coastline in the community of La Jolla, California, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego— best known as MCASD—has been expanded, renovated and reinvented as a major cultural center and celebration of internationally renowned artists. With its official reopening in this month, the world will witness the $105 million redesign led by Annabelle Selldorf, FAIA, of Selldorf Architects—and the less conspicuous yet equally elegant building systems engineered by Buro Happold. Coming at a time of increased commissions in the cultural sphere globally for the multidisciplinary consultants at Buro Happold, the MCASD project debuts a number of innovations behind the new galleries, installations and public events. Key contributions to quadrupled exhibition spaces include a pioneering alternative to conventional heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems that significantly reduces ductwork and dropped ceilings. Using radiant and forced-air equipment, the displacement system handles both heating and cooling with rapid response to changing needs, (Continued on the next page)
