When Foundation Content’s Samantha Hart said the company was expanding its Los Angeles operation she was understating the undertaking.
The Streeterville production/post house signed a long-term lease for 6,000-sq. ft. of space in Culver City’s super hot Hayden Tract development that consists of formerly abandoned industrial warehouses converted into modernist buildings housing technology and visual media business.
Hart saying the new space “is going to a showplace” is no idle boast, as it is designed and constructed by the architectural firm of Eric Owen Moss, the genius who bought and transformed the deteriorating area into Hayden Tract’s collection of stunning experimental buildings.
When constructed has been completed by Dec. 15, Foundation’s L.A. presence will have a 30x30-ft. stage, four editorial bays, an open production area and a newly-constructed mezzanine for two executive offices.
Hart is furnishing the interior with organic sustainable materials.
The new space is on the ground floor of the building, which faces another Moss building occupied by design firm Super Fad. Its roll-up garage doors open onto a large crescent shaped patio being outfitted with patio furniture.
An architectural cactus garden in keeping with the Tract’s environment is suspended above high above the patio.
“Above all else, we want the new studio to be a creative space where great work can flourish. We want to create a sense of community and connectivity with our Chicago office by exposing their work to the L.A. market and vice versa,” says Hart.
Feeling the time was right to break out of a small Santa Monica office necessitated by "continued organic growth," Hart says. Her search for space that started last May was justified when Jonathan Del Gatto joined the company.
Del Gatto is the internationally known, award-winning editor of commercials, dramatic and documentary films and music videos favored by A-list spot directors.
His most recent Foundation project also involved him directing as well as editing a series of United Airlines web pieces for Minneapolis agency BDM. He shot multiple people with a 7D camera on Foundation's Chicago stage.
Del Gatto is currently directing and will edit a music video for band Matt and Kim and a pro bono PSA for Inside Out, the Community Arts Center in Venice.
The L.A. staff also includes producer Stacy Paris, the music video shooting team of Focus Creeps and Chicago office transplant, director/editor Anna Patel, who moved to L.A. from Foundation's Chicago facility. Other staff additions are planned for after the first of the year.
Hart is no stranger to L.A., having been a top creative advertising/marketing executive in the entertainment industry for 10 years before moving to Chicago in 2004.
Foundation Content Chicago is located at 200 E. Ohio; phone 312/951-9784. See To view the United Airlines videos: