Foster + Partners unveils winning bid for reimagined Television City in LA

Foster + Partners has been revealed as the architectural designers of a major new campus modernization project for the famed former CBS Television City in Los Angeles. 

At a cost of $1 billion, the firm is now under contract to deliver what will be the first all-electric studios in the city. William Pereira’s original 1952 buildings will be restored with the addition of production spaces and office suites surrounding them on a 25-acre campus that will be lined with retail establishments following the demolition of an existing 15-story structure. 

David Summerfield, Head of Studio, Foster + Partners, describes the project: “We are designing a creative multi-modal campus that celebrates Television City’s 70-year history and sets a new benchmark for the entertainment industry. It’s a great privilege to breathe new life into Pereira’s iconic and inherently flexible building, which forms the heart of our modular scheme. The campus is designed to embody L.A.’s innovative spirit, while integrating seamlessly with the city fabric and reinvigorating the surrounding streets at a human scale.”

Divided into two zones on either side of the Pereira buildings, the development calls for the construction of low-rise new soundstages and production facilities to complement the office component. They are designed to be plugged into a low-carbon structural grid evocative of the green tenets of the Case Study houses in a further nod to LA’s midcentury tradition.

A new “state-of-the-art” mobility hub, designed to house the Transportation Demand Management (TDM) system completes the plan, which is connected throughout by a series of pocket parks and tree-lined pedestrian pathways for wellbeing. The TDM system is marketed as being able to cut vehicle use by 30%, a charge taken up by Foster (particularly in Los Angeles’ context) for many years.

“The entertainment industry is our city signature industry, and if we don’t invest in the future, we’re really at risk of losing it,” client Hackman Capital Partners told the LA Times of the project’s underpinnings. “We’re still emerging from a once-in-a-generation dual strike. And the production stoppage cost Angelenos approximately $6.5 billion or more in lost wages and economic activity, which makes it clear how important this industry is to our city, and especially the people who work in entertainment every day.”

RIOS, who is still attached to the project along with Adamson Associates, had been previously contracted to deliver a 2050 master plan for $1.25 billion. Their collaboration with Foster on the new $2 billion One Beverly Hills development broke ground just last month.

Foster + Partners is also revitalizing Pereira's Transamerica Pyramid with SHVO in San Francisco and currently hiring for Architect positions in its two California locations via Archinect jobs.