Cellular Health and Fitness: Former Magazine Office Transformed into Bio-Engineering Lab

The transformation converted a former publishing office into a cutting-edge gene-research facility. Image: CO Architects (Photographer: Kim Rodgers)

The former global epicenter of bodybuilding where Flex, Muscle and Fitness, and other health titles were published is now a cutting-edge research laboratory. Originally a Type V warehouse, the previous Weider Health and Fitness building frequently hosted future California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as a cover model, a columnist, and eventually as executive editor. The nonprofit Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation purchased the 50,000-square-foot building from the Weider family in 2020. Terasaki had outgrown its two existing buildings and wanted a third Los Angeles research facility.

Built in 1971 as a warehouse, the building was acquired by Weider in the late 1980s. Subsequently, closed-off office space for magazine publishing and a fitness area revised the original floorplan. The wood-framed shell included a double-height warehouse with glulam beams and wood trusses. Defining features included a central atrium with a water feature illuminated by skylights, full-height curtainwalls, and plaster-reliefs of Greek god-like bodybuilders in the exterior façade.

Terasaki’s programmatic requirements for the building focused on workspace for approximately 100 scientists and staff. Compulsory details included modern research laboratories, culture rooms, open workplaces, an expansive staff breakroom, conference rooms, and a flexible-use forum space for all-hands meetings, presentations, movie nights, and community events.

Retaining, repurposing

The building’s signature columns and plaster reliefs were retained in homage to its legacy. A higher-performance curtainwall was one of the exterior updates. Image: CO Architects (Photographer: Esther Chao)

Laboratory-design specialist CO Architects collaborated with Terasaki Institute to preserve the Greek sport motifs on the facade as a connection between the building’s legacy and the institute’s mission to invent and foster practical solutions that restore or enhance health. Demolition of non-bearing walls by contractor MATT Construction promptly revealed inaccuracies in the building plans. Surprises included undocumented wood joists, shear walls, columns, and beams. Seeking accurate plans, CO Architects made a 3D scan of the building and generated cloud points, providing a digital twin of the existing structure. This facilitated the adaptive-reuse transformation of office space into research labs.

Further, digital modeling helped optimize cost analyses, determining how much of the original building was viable to retain and which aspects should be modernized for better performance. Updates included moving plumbing underground to increase usable interior square footage and adding structural vibration-damping. Energy-efficiency was improved with a new curtainwall and roof.

3D scanning was one of many digital tools used for the project. Designed during the pandemic, CO Architects used Miro as a virtual pin-up board for ideas and solutions. Image: CO Architects

Because the project coincided with the pandemic, the architects had to employ additional digital tools. Design-team ideas and drawings emerging from virtual meetings were posted on Miro, a virtual pin-up board.

The primary challenge was melding historical cues with modern design. The link between the old and the new emerged with the welcomed discovery of the attractive wooden joist structure. CO Architects devised a wood slat language to integrate the historic and the modern, beginning on the entry ceiling and reception desk, extending into the atrium. The slats are augmented with embedded LED fixtures.

One design cue that was retained in spirit only was the post-modern pink reveals striping the atrium and bordering the building’s skylights. These strong linear gestures appear in the redesign as linear light fixtures that connect the corridor into the laboratories and continue in the office baffles. Furthermore, the building’s previous interior signature, a double-height waterfall, was reconfigured as a 16x9-foot LED video wall. This feature is still highlighted by the skylights and is now framed by the wood slats introduced in the lobby.

The original wood-paneled executive suites were reconfigured as conference and meeting rooms, retaining some of the existing paneling in tribute to the building’s heritage. New open work areas offer flexible workstations, high tables, and soft lounge seating. Terasaki’s corporate blue hue appears as an accent color in the workspaces and common areas. The company’s history and values are honored with the custom circuit pattern on glass walls and in a central display case that houses research artifacts.

Terasaki’s lab spaces feature flexible benches. This design easily accommodates any future expansion. Image: CO Architects (Photographer: Kim Rodgers)

Modern labs 50 years later

CO Architects designed the Terasaki interior to evoke a sense of wonder when visitors and staff walk through the doors, cross over into the atrium, and see lab benches filled with colorful pipettes, 3D printers, and microscopes. The open labs are arranged around the atrium to get the maximum amount of daylight to the benches. Lab support is located in the back, where natural light isn’t as critical. To accommodate a wide range of life science and bio-engineering research, 116 mobile benches were locally made by Kumar Industries, helping to reduce the carbon footprint of the lab build-out.

The labs also contain support for sensitive imaging instrumentation, tissue culture, and histology rooms. Future expansion is addressed in the design―a shell-space area behind the atrium was retained for additional laboratories, a core lab, or dry workspace.

The new Terasaki Institute building will accelerate advances in micro- and nanotechnologies with applications in diagnostics, therapeutic drug delivery, and regenerative medicine. Located in Los Angeles suburb Woodland Hills, this adaptive-reuse project has won two Los Angeles design awards to date—the 2024 Commercial Real Estate Awards: Best New Headquarters, and the Los Angeles Business Council’s 53rd Annual Architectural Awards.

Esther Chao, AIA, is senior associate at CO Architects in Los Angeles, CA.