NBCUniversal Campus

NBCUniversal – the conglomerate that includes the movie production and distribution company Universal – is one of the world’s leading media and entertainment multinationals. First established in the early 20^th century, Universal built its headquarters on private land in Los Angeles County, extending it over the years to create an entire district that today includes the famous film studios and theme park, Universal Studios Hollywood.

Over the years, Universal City developed into a densely built fabric, a strictly functional jumble of unrelated volumes and spaces serving production and entertainment requirements but completely devoid of any urban dynamic. Recently, however, more than a century after the first buildings went up and after countless alterations and additions, Lever Architecture won a competition to design and build the new NBCUniversal Campus, effectively giving Universal City a new center of gravity. The designers were later joined by landscape architect Field Operations, who was essential to the project’s success especially in the campus plan, the plantings, as well as the integration of indoors and outdoors. The strong urban program not only provides the volumes required by the brief but also the urban spaces connecting them, at last lending Universal City a coherent urban structure.

Crucial to achieving this urban character is the way the design components fit into the new and existing elements of the urban context but also how they resonate with the extraordinary landscape and climate of Los Angeles. The project involved the design of a new creative office building – One Universal – and an employee center – The Commons – connected by a central open space – The Green – with new outdoor amenities, green workspaces, shaded courtyards, outdoor restaurants, and flexible gathering areas. A tree-lined avenue – the Paseo – runs the length of the site,...

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