Smuggler

Located in the heart of Hollywood, Smuggler is the adaptive reuse of a 14,000-square-foot, two-story concrete building originally constructed in 1927. Rather than erase nearly a century of history, the project begins with what was already there, preserving the building’s industrial character and allowing its imperfections, structure, and material history to become part of the identity of the new headquarters.

The design works through a deliberate dialogue between preservation and intervention. Exposed concrete columns, steel-framed windows, open ceilings, and visible mechanical systems retain the rawness of the original structure, while a new layer of finely crafted woodwork, glass partitions, lighting, and furnishings introduces warmth and intimacy. A dramatic wood stair and multi-story atrium organize the interior, transforming circulation into a shared social space and creating visual connections between the building’s two levels.

Workspaces remain open and communal while enclosed meeting rooms are conceived as transparent rooms within the larger volume. Steel-framed glass walls maintain sightlines through the building, allowing daylight to penetrate deep into the plan and preserving an understanding of the original architecture even as new programs are inserted within it. The contrast is intentional: polished and unfinished, industrial and domestic, historic and contemporary.

Outside, a new framework of steel, wood, concrete planters, climbing vegetation, and mature olive trees softens the existing concrete shell and extends the workplace into a series of informal outdoor rooms. Together, architecture, interiors, landscape, and the existing building create a headquarters that feels accumulated rather than newly manufactured, carrying the character of its Hollywood past forward while supporting the culture of contemporary creative work.