NeueHouse to expand co-working space into historic Bradbury Building
NeueHouse, which provides co-working space to creative types, will open its second Los Angeles outpost in the famous Victorian-era Bradbury Building in downtown’s historic core.
The downtown branch is intended to complement NeueHouse Hollywood, which occupies the former CBS broadcasting facility in Hollywood where stars including George Burns and Gracie Allen performed over decades beginning in the late 1930s.
New York-based NeueHouse wanted another significant building for its second L.A. branch, Chief Executive Josh Wyatt said.
The Bradbury Building, completed in 1893, is on the National Register of Historic Places. The five-story brick edifice at 3rd Street and Broadway is renowned for its human-operated cage elevators, black metal decoration and sunlit atrium.
“You have this cast-iron heavy architecture but at the same time this very ethereal quality,” Wyatt said.
The building is frequently used for filming and has appeared in “Blade Runner,” “Pay It Forward” and “500 Days of Summer,” as well as music videos for Cher’s “Take Me Home” and Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation.”
NeueHouse will rent the second floor of the building, which will contain about 25,000 square feet. The landlord of the building is Goodwin Gaw, a Hong Kong investor who is a financial partner in NeueHouse and owns other property in Los Angeles, including the century-old Hollywood Roosevelt hotel.
Gaw was among a group of investors who last fall provided $30 million in financing for NeueHouse to expand internationally. Another NeueHouse branch is planned in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles.
In the Bradbury Building, space previously occupied by the internal affairs group of the Los Angeles Police Department will be turned into communal office space and a cafe for NeueHouse members. They will also be able to rent offices for as many as 40 people for higher monthly dues.
Memberships will start at $595 a month for open space or $1,000 per person for office studios. Among the conveniences will be a room dedicated to meditating or napping. NeueHouse’s downtown branch is set to open in November.
Architect Richard Keating, who designs corporate high-rises and has offices on the third floor of the Bradbury, said the atrium is a special feature generally considered too expensive to build today. “We have sun moving through it all day long,” Keating said. “Our focus is always into the interior.”
Co-working offices emerged a decade ago as offbeat, bare-bones affairs that served start-ups and the self-employed in the emerging gig economy. Now their appeal has broadened even to mainstream companies looking for the flexibility to ramp up or wind down operations as situations demand. Co-working companies occupy about 4.5 million square feet in Los Angeles County.
Upmarket providers such as Soho House, NeueHouse and H Club cultivate an air of exclusivity by catering to people in creative fields such as entertainment and often creating a private-club atmosphere.
