If you caught the second night of the Democratic National Convention on August 18th, you might have seen Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia address the nation as one of the Democratic Party's 17 "rising stars." 

The address, it turns out, was filmed at Long Beach headquarters of Studio One Eleven, an architecture and urban design firm that has long been involved with revitalizing the city's urban fabric. The firm's 34,300-square-foot offices, which are shared with the commercial architecture firm RDC and development support firm Fathom, are located in an former big-box department store that has been adaptively reused by the architects to achieve LEED Platinum and WELL Gold certifications. The office renovation, which opened in 2016, kicked off the revitalization of a former 350,000-square-foot pedestrian mall in the Downtown Long Beach area led by Studio One Eleven, and includes a flexible community room, which allows for collaboration and hosting community events, according to the architects. 

The architects have been working remotely for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic and opened the offices for use by the mayor for his address.

Describing Mayor Garcia's use of the offices to make the address, Studio One Eleven Founding Principal Alan Pullman, AIA explains that he believes Mayor Garcia selected the location because it represents positive community engagement. “Having worked with the Mayor’s office for years on many revitalization efforts, Mayor Garcia sees our environment as bold, fresh and energetic. This is how he wanted to represent our city to the nation,” said Pullman. “It has already hosted gatherings for the community groups surrounding it.”

“The bold, open floorplan is an excellent visual representation of open discourse,” added Studio One Eleven Senior Principal and Design Director Michael Bohn, AIA. “We think it looked great on the national stage.”

Garcia is a trail-blazer in his own right who serves as the youngest mayor in the history of Long Beach as well as the first Latino and first openly gay mayor of the city.