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the art of architectureIn the Works: Pacific Design Center’sRed Building BySteve BasiloneImages courtesy Pacific Design CenterCHARLES S. COHENDeveloping a Living MuseumAll of L.A. is well acquainted with the “Blue Whale”. Even if you don’t know it—you know it. It’s the mammoth, six-story, blue structure that lords over theintersections of Melrose and San Vicente. It, along with its nine-story green partnerto the north, is what we have all come to know as Pacific Design Center.Sitting on the 14-acre West Hollywood lot, the twobuildings combined make up for more than 1.2 millionsquare feet of space that have come to exemplifydesign excellence in Southern California.And soon the Blue Whale and its cohort, thePDC’s “Green Building”, will have a third color to addto the palette; a 400,000 square foot “Red Building”is to break ground at the beginning of next year. Thered, glass-clad complex of offices and parking will bethe third and final building for the PDC. Owner andDeveloper Charles S. Cohen is poised to have thevibrant building’s doors opened for business by 2009.The minds behind the Red: developer Charles S.Cohen (left) and architect Cesar Pelli (right).Developing successful real estate is no new trick for Cohen, who headsCohen Brothers Realty Corporation, a New York-based company that owns andmanages more than eleven million square feet of premiere office and showroomspace in L.A., Manhattan, Houston and Florida. With the Red Building, Cohenhopes to underscore the success of the PDC and turn a few heads while doingit. “It’s going to be a spectacular office building, one that will set a standard formany, many years to come,” says Cohen confidently from his Pacific Design Centeroffice. “What we have done is made an office building that will work, that isattractive, and that has a manageable floor size.”The innovative building, whose glowing red appearance falls somewherebetween a ship’s hull and a Legoland fantasy, will feature twostate-of-the-art office towers atop an enclosed parkingstructure that will be capable of accommodating 1,500 cars.And—as with the rest of the PDC—comfort and efficiencyis imperative.“We spend more time today then ever beforein our offices,” asserts Cohen.“So you see materials in officesthat you used to just see in the home.A lot of the elementsthat were strictly residential have now crossed over into theoffice environment.”To aid in this softening of the hard-edged office, bothtowers will feature sky lobbies that are to overlook somethingof an oasis—a meticulously landscaped palm court that offers expansiveviews of all of West Hollywood and beyond.“You want to be surrounded by elementsthat stimulate you. When you’re sitting in a spot that gives you pleasure,your work is going to succeed more because of it. Our environments allow us toachieve our potential.”An architectural rendering foreshadowing the future of the PDC. With the addition of yet another structure, the complexity and imposing nature of the PDC increases even further.94 2006 Issue 4