Commercial Architect Gains Stature With Low-Profile Approach

Size may not matter, but in the world of architecture, height certainly does.

“Tall buildings become symbols for cities,” architect Carl F. McLarand said. “They are unique opportunities for architects.”

But McLarand, founder of Costa Mesa-based McLarand Vasquez & Partners, has discovered prestige and profit on the low-rise end of commercial architecture. Instead of focusing on towering urban spires, McLarand is one of Southern California’s leading designers of sprawling suburban office parks and buildings. In fact, as new construction crops up across the region, McLarand’s firm has designed some of the largest new office projects in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

“The low-rise campus feel is very efficient, and it works with today’s tenants,” said Milt Swimmer, a partner at developer J.H. Snyder & Co., which hired McLarand to design Water Garden II, a giant Santa Monica office complex that rises no higher than six floors.

McLarand’s firm, founded 25 years ago, also has designed a few high-rises, including the 28-story headquarters for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority at Union Station in Los Angeles. But for the most part, McLarand’s buildings lie low in the suburban landscape and often rise no taller than a palm tree. In fact, the firm often takes pains to diminish the bulk of its taller structures.

In addition to Water Garden II, which includes 600,000 square feet of office space, McLarand’s most recent projects include the new campus-style headquarters of Fluor Daniel Inc., a giant engineering firm, which occupies six buildings in the Orange County community of Aliso Viejo.

Several miles away in Newport Beach, McLarand has designed a posh office building that will rise only four floors but command rents equal to those of Century City skyscrapers.

“People want to have a closer relationship with the landscape,” said McLarand, whose projects focus on offices that open onto balconies and lushly landscaped courtyards. “People prefer that lifestyle instead of being in a hermetically sealed box. It’s part of the spirit of Southern California.”

The Newport Beach building, which will feature private balconies with golf course and ocean views, represents a change in preferences among corporate tenants that once clamored for space in sleek and imposing skyscrapers of mirrored glass.

“The corporate view of prestige may have shifted--they are looking for a softer image,” said McLarand, who works from behind an expansive marble-top desk in a third-floor office. “Having your name on top of a 50-story building is a bit of an ego trip.”

And unlike the developer of a skyscraper, who must commit to filling space in a 30-story tower, the builder of a three-story office park can build in smaller chunks as tenants sign up or when the market appears to be heating up. Skyscrapers may command higher rents than their shorter counterparts, but building and operating costs can be substantially higher.

That’s not to say that low-rise office buildings don’t have drawbacks. Many lack the style and detail of their taller peers and are often lonely looking boxes set amid acres of parking lots. One of their chief advantages--wide floors that can house entire departments--can also create deep, dark spaces that force workers to walk long distances.

Urban and architectural critics also have taken issue with some of McLarand’s projects, including the sprawling 1-million-square-foot Wilshire Courtyard in Los Angeles. The six-story development was described as an “inappropriate suburban model” that was at odds with Wilshire Boulevard’s urban setting.

But McLarand defended the project as being consistent with the city’s history of low-rise architecture. The 60-year-old McLarand, who grew up in Hollywood, says he has often been inspired by the city’s classic low- and mid-rise buildings that rely on gardens and courtyards to break big structures into smaller pieces.

Using McLarand’s design guide, a large office complex should consist of multiple buildings that are clustered together to form plazas and courtyards where people can meet and mingle. Large floors can be broken up into “pods” of up to 35,000 square feet--a popular floor size among corporate tenants. Outside, the bulk and height of a six-story structure is reduced by setting back the upper floors, creating outdoor terraces that soften the look of the building, McLarand said.

The firm’s 100 architects also work on residential projects, which helps them approach commercial buildings with a human scale that is often lost in skyscrapers, McLarand said.

“The statement you are trying to make [with these buildings] is not one of ego,” McLarand said. “You are trying to embrace the people who work in that building and the people who are driving by.”