The new Los Angeles headquarters for fast-growing Califia Farms, a brand of dairy alternative products, was designed with the post-Covid hybrid work environment in mind. Located in Maxwell Coffee House, a historic production facility built in 1924 that has become a vibrant mixed-use complex, the office features a café bordered by generous meeting rooms.
The café includes a bar and tasting room, with a sizable screen that displays the company’s digital media work. The two-level café, staffed by a barista, is a central hub for meeting, socializing, and indulging in Califia’s own plant-based milks, creamers, and frozen desserts.
“As soon as you step inside the office, you’re transported to the inviting ambiance of a bustling café,” says Alexis Dennis-Huether, the project's lead designer and Associate Principal with SLAM. “Rather than being greeted by a traditional receptionist, there’s a friendly barista, setting the tone for a unique and memorable experience. This entrance creates an impactful first impression that perfectly captures the brand's bold and playful personality.”
The challenge of accommodating a large team of 200 staff members within a 30,000 sf space inspired design firm SLAM to get creative with multi-purpose, open concept areas, according to a news release. This approach allowed for a stronger emphasis on functionality and flexibility.
Hybrid office design includes tasting room, indoor-outdoor connection
Hybrid office models can lead to worker isolation, but SLAM designed the space to counteract this risk. Large amenity spaces offer flexibility for chance encounters, collaboration, and meetings.
Equipped with kitchen appliances including a black electric cooktop and stainless-steel refrigerator, and the technology of a meeting room, the tasting room serves as a research and development space, where staff create, test, and refine products. It also becomes a relaxed setting for team activities, break-out meetings, and lunch preparation.
![Creating new avenues for in-house operations, the office café is bordered by generous meeting rooms, the café bar and tasting room, and a sizable screen that pilots the company’s digital media. Photo by SLAM.](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Califia%20Farms%20headquaters%20designed%20by%20SLAM%203.jpg)
Throughout the office, 15% of workstations are dedicated to hoteling, all bathed with an abundance of natural light through large windows and skylights. Meeting rooms are equipped with high-quality video-conferencing solutions, allowing for seamless hybrid meetings and teamwork.
One design goal was to create an environment that interfaces with the public space outside. Creating vital indoor-outdoor connections, branding elements and office operations are visible from the street while roll-up garage doors open out to a patio to extend the office atmosphere into the downtown streetscape. Because of its strong street presence, Califia has become a friendly neighborhood fixture, fostering an important sense of community in this evolving area.
The office is adorned with abstract interpretations of the company’s brand speaking to a distinct identity and spirited culture. Califia Farms’ signature amphora-shaped bottle, with its distinctive curves, presides over the café lounge as a tinplated metal silhouette, adding a striking and eye-catching element. The continuous and smooth lines of the bottle are captured in the curvatures of the café bar while a more abstract interpretation of their product design is stamped into the carpet pattern.
Bold brand colors of red and blue are balanced against natural materials. Vermilion red encased banquette niches are recessed into wood-panelled walls, allowing for privacy and comfort. Framed in double pane glass, meeting rooms provide a sense of transparency, and feature small touches that mirror the Califia Farms’ brand, including an outline in a thick red trim that accentuates sharp angles and warm-toned finishes.
![A tinplated metal silhouette of the company’s distinct and award-wining product design presides over the café lounge. Photo by SLAM](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Califia%20Farms%20headquaters%20designed%20by%20SLAM%205.jpg)
![The ebullience of the café bar and lounge beams through double pane glass walls of adjacent meeting rooms. Photo by SLAM](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Califia%20Farms%20headquaters%20designed%20by%20SLAM%208.jpg)
![Award winning branding is integrated into the office design through office room trim and carpet patterns. Photo by SLAM](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Califia%20Farms%20headquaters%20designed%20by%20SLAM1.jpg)
![Food and beverage-inspired amenities like the office café bar and tasting room reflects the brand experience. Photo by SLAM](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Califia%20Farms%20headquaters%20designed%20by%20SLAM%204.jpg)
![Contrasting bold brand colors with natural materials, banquette niches offer comfortable heads-down spaces for staff. Photo by SLAM](/sites/default/files/inline-images/Califia%20Farms%20headquaters%20designed%20by%20SLAM%207.jpg)
Related Stories
Giants 400 | Aug 22, 2022
Top 200 Contractors for 2022
Turner Construction, STO Building Group, Whiting-Turner, and DPR Construction top the ranking of the nation's largest general contractors, CM at risk firms, and design-builders for nonresidential buildings and multifamily buildings work, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2022 Giants 400 Report.
Giants 400 | Aug 22, 2022
Top 45 Engineering Architecture Firms for 2022
Jacobs, AECOM, WSP, and Burns & McDonnell top the rankings of the nation's largest engineering architecture (EA) firms for nonresidential buildings and multifamily buildings work, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2022 Giants 400 Report.
Giants 400 | Aug 22, 2022
Top 80 Engineering Firms for 2022
Kimley-Horn, Tetra Tech, Langan, and NV5 head the rankings of the nation's largest engineering firms for nonresidential buildings and multifamily buildings work, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2022 Giants 400 Report.
| Aug 22, 2022
For Gen Z, “enhanced communication” won’t cut it
As the fastest-growing generation, Generation Z, loosely defined as those born between the mid-1990s and early 2000s, has become a hot topic in conversations surrounding workplace design.
Giants 400 | Aug 21, 2022
Top 110 Architecture/Engineering Firms for 2022
Stantec, HDR, HOK, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill top the rankings of the nation's largest architecture engineering (AE) firms for nonresidential and multifamily buildings work, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2022 Giants 400 Report.
Giants 400 | Aug 20, 2022
Top 180 Architecture Firms for 2022
Gensler, Perkins and Will, HKS, and Perkins Eastman top the rankings of the nation's largest architecture firms for nonresidential and multifamily buildings work, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2022 Giants 400 Report.
Giants 400 | Aug 19, 2022
2022 Giants 400 Report: Tracking the nation's largest architecture, engineering, and construction firms
Now 46 years running, Building Design+Construction's 2022 Giants 400 Report rankings the largest architecture, engineering, and construction firms in the U.S. This year a record 519 AEC firms participated in BD+C's Giants 400 report. The final report includes more than 130 rankings across 25 building sectors and specialty categories.
Daylighting | Aug 18, 2022
Lisa Heschong on 'Thermal and Visual Delight in Architecture'
Lisa Heschong, FIES, discusses her books, "Thermal Delight in Architecture" and "Visual Delight in Architecture," with BD+C's Rob Cassidy.
| Aug 17, 2022
IBM’s former office buildings in Boca Raton turn into a modern tech campus
Built in 1968, the Boca Raton Innovation Campus (BRiC), at 1.7 million square feet, is the largest office campus in Florida.
| Aug 9, 2022
Work-from-home trend could result in $500 billion of lost value in office real estate
Researchers find major changes in lease revenues, office occupancy, lease renewal rates.