Office Complex Breaks Spanish-Style Mold : Westlake Village Project Given Commission Approval Despite Its Non-Conformance

You can build any office building you like in Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village--as long as it has Spanish- or Mediterranean-style architecture with stucco exteriors and red tile roofs.

So it’s news when a planning body in the Conejo Valley approves a two-building complex that doesn’t look at all Spanish.

That’s the case with the $10-million Westlake Office Complex now under construction on a 4.6-acre site at Thousand Oaks Boulevard and Lakeview Canyon.

FMG Development Corp., Sherman Oaks, a subsidiary of Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Co., Philadelphia, is developing the project, and the Los Angeles office of the Koll Co. is the contractor.

According to architect Garth Sheriff of Sheriff + Associates, Los Angeles, and Edward Budnick of FMG, the stepped-back construction and use of 41,000 square feet of dark burgundy Fiandre tile imported from Italy by Park Tile Supply, Anaheim, was instrumental in persuading the commission to relax its emphasis on low, Spanish-style buildings.

The three-story building will have 49,430 leasable square feet, while the two-story one will have 19,234 square feet.