LOS ANGELES, CA.- Second Home, the London-based creative business for entrepreneurs and innovators, will open its first U.S. location, Second Home Hollywood, in September 2019. For Second Home’s sixth site created in partnership with the Madrid-based design team Selgascano, the architects are transforming the historic site of the Anne Banning Community House in East Hollywood into an innovative 90,000-square-foot urban campus.
“Throughout our long working relationship with Selgascano, which began in 2014, we’ve created innovative environments that bring diverse communities together and spark new ideas. We’ve fallen in love with Los Angeles. We look forward to welcoming Angelenos into the space and seeing the kinds of creativity it inspires,” said Sam Aldenton and Rohan Silva, co-founders of Second Home.
Second Home Hollywood will be home to 250 diverse organizations and teams and will feature a branch of Second Home’s acclaimed bookshop Libreria, a 200-person auditorium, post-production facilities, a restaurant, outdoor terraces, meeting and event spaces and more. Similar to Second Home’s creative workspaces in London and Lisbon, Hollywood will be distinguished by the use of unconventional materials, bold furnishings, and abundant foliage to enhance occupants’ wellbeing and professional productivity.
Unlike private members clubs, Second Home Hollywood will offer a diverse cultural program that will be entirely open to the public—helping to support learning and social inclusion. The restaurant, bookshop, and event spaces will also open to all, and local charities and neighborhood groups will be able to use meeting rooms free of charge.
Second Home Hollywood is a contemporary interpretation of LA’s early 20th century bungalow court residences and incorporates ideas and elements that expand upon Southern California’s architectural legacy. The campus is made up of 60 single-story, oval-shaped studios unified with a sinuous, yellow roof plane—a reference to Howard Hughes’s infamous 1947 Spruce Goose airplane. Each independent structure is wrapped in curved, transparent, acrylic walls, providing unobscured connections with the outdoors. The individual pods, linked by winding pathways, are nestled in lush gardens brimming with more than 6,500 plants.
Prior to the opening of Second Home Hollywood in September, Second Home is partnering with the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County (NHMLAC) on the Second Home Serpentine Pavilion by Selgascano at La Brea Tar Pits. Opening on June 28, it will offer the public a flexible, multi-purpose social space in which to enjoy public programs and events focusing on the intersection of art, design, science, and nature, co-organized by Second Home and NHMLAC. The installation in Los Angeles marks the first time that a Serpentine Pavilion has been presented in the United States, and Los Angeles will be its only venue. Throughout the summer and fall of 2019, the Second Home Pavilion will host exclusive art commissions, lectures, film screenings, and private events. A world-class series of cultural programs will highlight innovations in music, technology, art, film, and wellness.
Second Home is a British social business committed to supporting entrepreneurship, and creativity in cities around the world. Second Home’s first location in East London opened in 2014 and was followed by Libreria bookshop; a new school building in Kibera in Nairobi; a plant-filled workspace and cultural venue in Lisbon’s oldest fruit and vegetable market, in 2016; and Second Home Holland Park in 2017. These projects were all designed by Selgascano, with the exception of Second Dome, which was designed by emerging Spanish architecture practice DOSIS. When Second Home Hollywood opens in summer 2019, it will be the first location in the United States. Second Home also has a broad-ranging social program, including a refugee and migrant literacy training program in London and the construction and financial support of a school in Nairobi.
Selgascano is a Madrid-based architectural practice founded in 1998 by José Selgas and Lucia Cano. The firm has built internationally acclaimed projects in Europe, the UK, Kenya, and the United States, including auditoriums, congress centers, health clinics, commercial offices, residences, public pavilions, and exhibitions. Selgascano’s transformative work has been recognized for its positive social impact, structurally sophisticated forms, and ingenious use of environmentally sustainable materials and bold colors.
The Principals of Selgascano were Architects-in-Residence at MIT, and their work has been exhibited at MoMA and the Guggenheim in New York, the Venice Biennale, the Design Museum in London and the Akademie der Kunste in Berlin. After designing Second Home Spitalfields, Selgascano was selected to design the Serpentine Gallery Summer Pavilion in London’s Hyde Park. Previous architects chosen include Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas and Herzog & de Meuron.
