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Panavision is a Hollywood institution, engineering and fabricationg high precision film and digital cameras for the movie industry since 1954. It serves as a one-stop shop for filmmakers to test and rent equipment and on any given day is bustling with hundreds of employees and filmmakers in their vast network of labs, testing rooms, machine shops, and offices. When Panavision decided to leave the facility that they'd been in for decades and relocate to a new facility in Woodland Hills, we knew it would be a massive undertaking.

The project began with an exhasutive assessment of the business itself - not only the functional requirements of the hundreds of different rooms and spaces, but also of the required workflow and movement between the rooms, the critical adjacencies that enabled such a complex business structure to work. Likewise, we catalogued thousands of pieces of equipment, recording their size, weight, required clearances and electrcial and mechanical requirements.

Next was the space planning, which went through countless iterations, work sessions with various employees and department heads and rigorous testing for functionality. The varied uses that the facility needed to house included a shipping and receiving facility with multiple loading docks, a 100-seat state-of-the-art theater, a full-service cafeteria and commercial kitchen, multiple machine shops and R&D facilities, lens testing rooms, dark rooms, a retail store and cafe, and their corporate office headquarters.

These many functions were eventually laid out into a cohesive plan that allowed for all of the company's diverse needs to be met, and then the fun began. Panavision has a remarkable collection of memorabilia, from old Hollywood glamour photographs to vintage cameras and equipment. The architectural design served to act as a showcase for this collection with the use of clean, polished lines and cinematic black ceilings throughout the public areas. Polished concrete floors, glass walls, walnut accents, custom millwork and sleek, mid-century furnishings combine to create a space that speaks both of Panavision's illustrious history and its future as a leading innovator in its field.

CLIENT: PANAVISION

PROGRAM: 145,000 SF OFFICE AND MANUFACTURING FACILITY CONVERSION

YEAR: COMPLETED 2012

TEAM:

• PROJECT DESIGN, PROJECT MANAGER - MISTY KAPLAN / FIFTH WALL ARCHITECTURE

• EXECUTIVE ARCHITECT: MOSHIRI ASSOCIATES

PHOTO CREDITS: ALICIA ARLOW, ARLOW CREATIVE

Panavision is a Hollywood institution, engineering and fabricationg high precision film and digital cameras for the movie industry since 1954. It serves as a one-stop shop for filmmakers to test and rent equipment and on any given day is bustling with hundreds of employees and filmmakers in their vast network of labs, testing rooms, machine shops, and offices. When Panavision decided to leave the facility that they'd been in for decades and relocate to a new facility in Woodland Hills, we knew it would be a massive undertaking.

The project began with an exhasutive assessment of the business itself - not only the functional requirements of the hundreds of different rooms and spaces, but also of the required workflow and movement between the rooms, the critical adjacencies that enabled such a complex business structure to work. Likewise, we catalogued thousands of pieces of equipment, recording their size, weight, required clearances and electrcial and mechanical requirements.

Next was the space planning, which went through countless iterations, work sessions with various employees and department heads and rigorous testing for functionality. The varied uses that the facility needed to house included a shipping and receiving facility with multiple loading docks, a 100-seat state-of-the-art theater, a full-service cafeteria and commercial kitchen, multiple machine shops and R&D facilities, lens testing rooms, dark rooms, a retail store and cafe, and their corporate office headquarters.

These many functions were eventually laid out into a cohesive plan that allowed for all of the company's diverse needs to be met, and then the fun began. Panavision has a remarkable collection of memorabilia, from old Hollywood glamour photographs to vintage cameras and equipment. The architectural design served to act as a showcase for this collection with the use of clean, polished lines and cinematic black ceilings throughout the public areas. Polished concrete floors, glass walls, walnut accents, custom millwork and sleek, mid-century furnishings combine to create a space that speaks both of Panavision's illustrious history and its future as a leading innovator in its field.