Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects (EYRC) has completed their adaptive re-use of an abandoned Los Angeles Times print facility in Costa Mesa, Orange County. The 430,000-square-foot scheme titled ‘The Press’ saw the three-story complex converted into flexible office spaces.

The grounds surrounding the facility see an existing rail line reincorporated as a bike and pedestrian trial to link with a wider pathway network. Inside, EYRC’s approach to the building’s rehabilitation saw a combination of ‘selectively subtracting’ elements to enhance usability, and the retention of elements to convey the facility’s industrial past.

“The subtractive design interventions tie landscape and structure together, suggesting ruins recaptured by nature,” EYRC told Archinect. “What remains is a celebration of both material and organic markers of time, history, and context. Paint chips, rail spurs and conveyor belts were left as-is, and matured trees were relocated within the campus – all to preserve what once was.”

“Openings in loading dock canopies allow for trees to poke through – a poetic intersection of new life with the industrial past. The flexible design is extending the lifespan of this local landmark even beyond its new incarnation.”

Architectural interventions in the scheme include an atrium inserted into the central press line to provide additional casual workspaces. The print facility’s former production areas have been reimagined as workplace components, such as loading docks and canopy overhangs converted into “continuous back porches” for fitness and relaxation spaces, and printing press areas converted into “cathedral-like” workspaces.

Though the scheme’s conception came before the COVID-19 pandemic, the design team see the completed project as a model for the post-pandemic workplace, with an emphasis on nature and amenities.

“Unique indoor-outdoor spaces at every scale are layered with landscaping and graphic murals and are discovered as one traverses the project,” the team say. “These varied experiences speak to the varied personalities and moods of the occupants.”

The Press is one of several adaptive reuse projects to feature on our editorial this year. Last week, SOM completed a science complex at Wellesley College which consolidated several existing buildings on the campus, while work was also completed on the much-watched WilkinsonEyre conversion of the Battersea Power Station in London.

Earlier in 2022, we gained an insight into Foster + Partners’ adaptive reuse of an old Spanish gas plant, while work progressed on ODA’s transformation of a historic Rotterdam post office in the Netherlands.