Warner Bros to move into Frank Gehry-designed ‘floating icebergs’

Warner Bros will be celebrating its 100th birthday in style, if all goes to plan. 

The film studio recently commissioned renowned architect Frank Gehry to design an extension to its Burbank office, and the lopsided pair of office buildings he fashioned out of shimmering glass are set for completion in 2023 – 100 years after the four founding brothers formally incorporated as Warner Bros Pictures.

Warner Bros plans to move into the new offices in 2023. Picture: Gehry Partners/Rendering by Sora

Warner Bros will become the sole occupant of Gehry’s striking office towers, which executive vice president and CFO Kim Williams described as “an investment in our employees, our creative and business partners, and the Burbank community”.

“Along with our historic lot, the newly expanded campus will fuel increased creativity, facilitate collaboration, and help us attract and retain the world’s best and most diverse talent,” she said.

Spanning 74,000 square metres, the new office complex will consist of two towering office buildings made up of stepped, slanted towers, with one side forming a continuous glass facade “that creates a single identity like icebergs floating along the freeway”.

The rear of the building will have a terraced, punched-metal facade. Picture: Gehry Partners/Rendering by Sora

Gehry, who recently designed Facebook’s new Menlo Park headquarters, hopes the studio’s new offices will recapture the grandeur of the Roaring Twenties.

“Once upon a time, Hollywood Studios had an important architectural presence in the city – they were like monuments to the movie-making process,” he said.

“With this project, I was trying to recapture that feeling of old Hollywood splendour.”

Gehry was inspired by the the “Hollywood splendour” of a bygone era. Picture: Gehry Partners/Rendering by Sora

In stark contrast to the disjointed exteriors, the complex will feature open floor plates throughout, in pursuit of “creating the highest quality office space”.

Local firms Worthe Real Estate Group and Stockbridge Real Estate will develop the build, which has been nicknamed the Second Century Project, in recognition of the studio’s 100th anniversary.