The Architecture of Hollywood:
If you’re like me and find buildings and show business equally fascinating, please listen to today’s episode of The Business. The guest was architect Neil Denari who designed the new headquarters of the Endeavor Talent Agency. Among the considerations…
1. Agents and their assistants have to be able to communicate while one or both are on the telephone so offices must be designed to assure visual contact between the two.
2. In the 1980s, the glory days of CAA and its founder Michael Ovitz, agency offices had an air of controlled serenity and self-importance, as if to say “We’re no longer professional yappers in plaid jackets. We’re players now.” I’ve been inside CAA Headquarters designed by I.M. Pei and at the pretisigious Beverly Hills intersection of Wilshire and Santa Monica Blvd., once. It screamed “we will intimidate you.”
Endeavor’s new offices are designed to be abuzz not quiet. Departments are mixed together instead of seperate. Each agent, no matter what their billings or senoirity has an office of identical size. And several offices have been left dilberately empty to illustrate to assistants what might be in store for them.
Since agency offices are functionally not very sexy (warehousing people on telephones), I hadn’t thought must about their built needs. This piece really opened my eyes.