New Headquarters! (For Real This Time…)

As most of you know, I’ve been looking to move our place for a while. No disrespect to the OC, but it’s time to move back to our roots in LA. What do you think about this, Adam?

Who’s hand is that?

I started in the streets of downtown LA making my first jacket out of leftover fabrics I got from Portland. Although I had no idea what I was doing, the City of Angels taught me the ins and outs of the garment biz. Keep in mind this was 1992, right after the LA riots, so it was pretty raw. During that time, the art scene at the Brewery lofts near Chinatown (where I had my first office) was starting to take off. It was a compound that housed so much creativity it was infectious. This also showed me that you can do a lot of things with a little imagination, hence the DIY mentality that 686 was built upon.

After years of looking for a place with “character.” I found a place that reminds me of where I started at the Brewery. It’s an old manufacturing site for metal and truck parts. Although it doesn’t have dead bodies in the morgue like the hospital I showed, it does have lots of room and great bones. Check one of the views of our future compound.

Another shot at the side of the building.

A big part of my goal is to create a “community” where like DIY-ers can come together and do some incredible things. This area will house some of the creative lofts made out of shipping containers.

The current look of the entrance to the main building.

Come inside and check out the HUGE warehouse.

It keeps on going back with another large warehouse.

In the front, this is what the outdated offices look like. I HATE drop ceilings and fluorescent lights!

Up above, this is what drop ceilings look like.

I’m also not digg’n the 80’s style countertops in the bathroom.

Since I can “see” through ALL this junk and picture what I want the design to be like, it’s not an issue. The first thing we need to do is clear this shit out and start the demo process. (The following pictures show you what we’ve done in just a few days!) You can’t see it now, but I’m standing in the main foyer where my office will be at the top corner.

A few hours later, carpet is torn out, LA is marked and we’re moving.

Add a few more signatures, take that drop ceiling mess out and we have something going on here.

That’s what I call progress. (now can you see where my home away from home will be?)

I’ll give you another “before.”

And “after.” Downstairs will hold the bulk of our people. Upstairs will be our Design Labs where some crazy shit will go down. (Excuse the crappy tagging, I think our demo crew had a few too many beers while hitting the hammer)

Remember what this used to look like?

Now it’s going to be temporarily filled with lots of junk from the demo.

Don’t worry kids, all the stuff isn’t junk. Part the building process is to RECLAIM old things and make them new again. I want to minimize our carbon footprint and do it our way. Stay tuned and see what this stuff will eventually look like over the next 5 months.