L.A. Live! Buildings A and B are among the final pieces of a vast entertainment complex aimed at providing Los Angeles with a downtown feel.

Entertainment Building A is a nearly 408,000-sq-ft retail center that houses several restaurants, nightclubs, the Club Nokia music venue, a Lucky Strike Bowling Alley and the Grammy Museum.

LA Live! Buildings A and B

Entertainment Building B is about 105,000 sq ft and houses an ESPN Zone restaurant and bar, and production facilities and offices for ESPN.

The design concept required the buildings to be visually striking, which translated into the use of sharp angles, pop-outs, lighting elements, video screens, and signage armatures clad with a variety of skin systems including composite metal panels, stone, and corrugated metal panels.

The project team also had to coordinate the more than 800 people and about 100 subcontractors working on the project.

Another challenge the project team faced was some of the tenant spaces in parts of the building were completed early. This presented the project team with two primary challenges: incorporation of tenant accommodations into the building and the coordination of the contractors working within a single building and obtaining certificates of occupancy for portions of the building while major construction continued in other areas.

Project Team

Owner: Anschultz Entertainment Group (AEG), Los Angeles
General Contractor: Clark Construction Group, California, L.P., Costa Mesa
Architect: RTKL Associates, Inc., Los Angeles
Mechanical/Electrical Engineer: Syska-Hennessy Group, Inc., Los Angeles
Structural Engineer: John A. Martin & Associates, Incorporated, Los Angeles