LOS ANGELES — Allied Commercial has completed the conversion and restoration of an historic 85-year-old post office located at 1601 Main St. in the Venice area of Los Angeles. The 23,690-square-foot creative campus now serves as a versatile event space with dedicated artist studios, collaborative workspace, production offices and facilities, a mixed-use theater, recording studio, podcast suites, a coffee shop and an outdoor garden. Additionally, the site serves as the headquarters of Lighthouse Creative Group.
The Louis Simon-designed post office was built as part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Completed in 1939, the Mediterranean Revival-style property was also adorned with an interior mural, “Abbot Kinney and the Story of Venice” painted by Edward Biberman in 1941.
The conversion and restoration project reinstalled the mural and completed interior and exterior renovations and upgrades following rehabilitation guidelines from the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards of Historic Properties.
The project team included Chattel as historic preservation consultants, Pacific Edge as project manager, Both Design Architects as architect and JTM Construction Group as general contractor.