Better Buildings,
By Design.

Structural Focus provided structural engineering services for the Egyptian Theatre’s historic rehabilitation. Opening in 1922, it was the original “red carpet” movie premiere and grand palace theatre, one of the preeminent landmarks of Hollywood and motion picture history, and one of the most exemplary Egyptian Revival buildings in California. 

The project included renovation of the historic structures and complete seismic retrofit of the buildings per the NDC ordinance of the City of L.A. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District contributor (1985) and as L.A. Historic-Cultural Monument: No. 584. (1993)

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This new 18,000 SF sound stage on the main Warner Bros. Burbank lot had the stage centered over the valley’s main sewer outfall and had to be supported by dozens of drilled reinforced concrete piers. The walls are eight inches thick tilt-up panels, tied together with cast-in-place pilasters, and heavy timber trusses spanning 140 feet across the building to provide a clear vertical height of 40 feet. The building received LEED Gold Certification.

Founded in 1918, when Thomas H. Ince, a silent movie mogul, purchased 11-acres on Washington Boulevard from Harry H. Culver, the original, historic Culver Studios campus was designed to be beautiful and highly functional.

In 2017, Structural Focus began collaboration with Gensler on the design of "The Culver Studios Innovation Project,” a campus-wide revitalization plan for continued and future studio use—doubling its usable size. The project provided 500,000-SF of new office space, which currently leased by a single high-profile tenant. This large-scale innovation project includes: new underground parking structure; four, new 4-story office buildings and a new exterior courtyard sit atop the new underground parking structure; added/updated the guard houses throughout the campus for increased studio security; new vehicular tunnel; one new 4-story concrete office building for a high-profile tenant; site enhancements and modernization amenities. Since the closeout of the original project, we've provided support for studio stage updates, such as production build outs, MEP updates, sprinklering, and in studio office space.

Many historic structures and sound stages remain on campus. The new innovation project provided additional campus space, while incorporating these historical buildings for continued use as a production studio. The new structures with the incorporation of extensive site improvements, provide a modern and functional space for employees.

Completed in 2021, The Culver Studios Innovation Project continues the historic campus’ story for the next generation of filmmakers.

Kelly Sutherlin McLeod Architecture and Structural Focus collaborated on the historic preservation of the Olan G. and Aida T. Hafley House. Original construction documents, correspondence, and field notes from Neutra were used to restore this beautiful mid-century modern landmark. Neutra structures are visibly simple buildings and require a very surgical approach to structural strengthening. Structural Focus was able to achieve the project’s goal of structural integrity by “invisible” methods, the updated structural work is hidden and the house will perform better during the next earthquake.

Laserfiche knew that they needed a new headquarters and wanted to stay in hometown Long Beach. They enlisted acclaimed architecture firm Studio One Eleven to design a bold and sophisticated building to fit within the context of streamline Long Beach architecture. This building’s iconic, horizontally oriented street-scale language adds to the burgeoning architectural spirit of a revitalized Long Beach.

Structural Focus provided structural engineering services to design a structure supporting this intrepid vision. With cantilevered floors at both ends and balconies loaded with seating and heavy planters, engineering the steel building required careful modeling and analysis to generate precise and predictable behavior. Cantilevers are supported using exposed steel tube gravity braces, and strategically placed and sized reduced beam section moment frames form a lateral system that allows creative office layouts and long bands of tall, repeating windows at the perimeter. Construction specifications allowed cantilevered floors to maintain final deflections at a virtually undetectable minimum.