Habitat, a New Live-Work Campus in Los Angeles
June 5, 2026
Architecture: SHoP Architects, Steinberg Hart and RELM
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Photos: Jason ORear
Habitat is a new live-work campus in Culver City designed by SHoP Architects with Steinberg Hart as executive architect and RELM as landscape architect. The design emphasizes shared public landscape and architecture that is responsive to local climate and the area’s history. Habitat celebrates the emergence of a new way to live in Los Angeles while optimizing the opportunities presented by its dynamic location at the convergence of the Expo Line Bikeway, Ballona Creek and the elevated La Cienega/Jefferson light rail station.
Developed by Lendlease, a 12-story residential tower and a 6-story office building totaling 260,000 square feet frame views of the Hollywood Hills to the north and Baldwin Hills to the south. Breaking with the strong grid of adjacent streets, the buildings are shaped by a softly angling network of desire paths that weave a pedestrian network through the site, subsuming and integrating completely with the major bikeway that defines its northern edge. The result is a sequence of plazas and pocket parks that define the form and spirit of this unique place and open it up to the creative life of Culver City all around. Ground-floor retail further attracts and concentrates activity, serving those coming to and from the transit station and reinforcing the park-like block as a major destination for the neighborhood.
The office component features expansive floorplates designed for maximum flexibility. It incorporates terraces on each level, giving every workspace direct access to the outdoors. The folded form of the residential building opens optimal views across the city and presents an uninterrupted southern exposure for an expansive pool deck facing the Baldwin Hills. At the heart of the project, the architecture carefully steps down to highlight its signature open space—Cienega Square—creating the memorable image of two hills around a central valley. The office building encourages movement and a sustainable lifestyle with a diversity of wellness-focused amenities including a secure bike room, fitness center with access to the outdoors, and hospitality-focused end-of-trip facilities.
Taking full advantage of the temperate local climate, the buildings work to dissolve the distinction between indoors and out with continuous terraces, generous integrated plantings and floor-to-ceiling glass. The architecture takes its material cues from the region’s landscape and building traditions. Drawing on the site’s history as a ciénega, a type of wetland ecosystem specific to the region, the tonal palette is grounded in the muted gray-greens of sage and pine. Natural materials, layered horizontal forms, and a careful use of light coalesce to reinforce the project’s biophilic character.
Habitat incorporates sustainability initiatives, targeting LEED Gold for the residences and LEED Platinum for the commercial building. The project incorporates low-carbon concrete, a 100% all-electric design, and landscaping designed to ensure climate resilience and minimize resource demand. On-site stormwater treatment will minimize runoff and reduce the property’s environmental impact. In addition, the property will include 66 dedicated EV parking spots and 222 secured bike parking spaces. The result is a place that is truly Los Angeles in spirit, while being unlike anything else in the city. It looks toward a future that prioritizes connection: to nature, to people and to a more vibrant public realm.
Quotes:
“The design of Habitat prioritizes what makes Los Angeles distinct: the landscape, the connection to nature, and the way life spills outdoors year-round. Rather than organizing the site around vehicles, we conceived an inviting campus that activates an entire city block—with Cienega Square at the heart of the project: a lush, landscaped area for community and connection. The buildings respond directly to the light, climate, and views of their surroundings, with sloping forms that frame vistas north to the Hollywood Hills and south to the Baldwin Hills,” says Dana Getman, Principal at SHoP. “Habitat is a uniquely Los Angeles project, shaped by the history, culture, and character of the city we love, yet a design that is entirely its own.”
“Life in Los Angeles has always been intrinsically tied to the car,” says Asheshh Saheba, Managing Partner at Steinberg Hart. “With Habitat, we wanted to turn this idea on its head and instead create a space where architecture can create new opportunities for connection and help develop a sense of community in a time of increasing isolation. Architecture doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and this project helps usher Los Angeles into a multi-faceted, more integrated future.”
“Our hope was to create a found experience — something that feels both unexpected and entirely inevitable at the same time,” says David Christensen, Principal at RELM. “Habitat aims to cultivate that feeling through materiality and sequencing; choosing to not feel new or imposed, but like it had existed there all along.”
Habitat in Los Angeles, California, USA – Property Information
Architect: SHoP Architects – https://www.shoparc.com/, Steinberg Hart – https://www.steinberghart.com/ and RELM – https://relmstudio.com/
• Name: Habitat
• Location: Los Angeles, California
• Size: 455,000 total rentable square footage
• 260,000 square feet of creative office space
• 2,900 square feet of retail space
• 198,000-square-foot multifamily building
• Residential Units: 260
• Office Square Footage: 253,000 SF
• Developer: Lendlease
• Completion Date: May 2026
Design Teams & Roles
• Design Architect: SHoP Architects
• Executive Architect: Steinberg Hart
• Landscape Architect: RELM
• Interior Design:
o Residential Interiors: Conceptualized by Kelly Wearstler and brought into being by Jules Wilson Design Studio
o Office Interiors: A + I
About SHoP Architects
SHoP Architects is a New York-based global design leader, with iconic projects completed or underway across more than 100 million square feet on five continents. We work with the world’s most important and innovative companies in a wide range of industries to create award-winning projects of international renown.
Our practice forefronts the activation of dynamic public spaces, the use of technology to imaginatively reinterpret authentic building materials and an emphasis on the research and deployment of adaptive methods that simplify and accelerate project delivery under challenging circumstances. Notable SHoP projects include Brooklyn’s Barclays Center arena, the Uber Headquarters in San Francisco, the Collins Arch complex in Melbourne, Fulbright University Vietnam, the Botswana Innovation Hub, multiple diplomatic facilities under a Design Excellence contract with the U.S. Department of State and two supertall residential towers in New York City—111 West 57th Street and The Brooklyn Tower—that have been recognized as instant classics. The diverse, trendsetting and enduring work of the firm has been widely celebrated with a variety of honors, among them the Smithsonian Institute’s National Design Award for Architecture and, in 2025, the AIA Medal of Honor.
In 2021, SHoP became a 100-percent employee-owned company—furthering a commitment to a culture of innovation and the next-generation practice of architecture.
About Steinberg Hart
For more than 70 years, Steinberg Hart has designed memorable spaces that enrich lives and strengthen communities, shaping the built environment with purpose and imagination. With offices across the country, including in California, New York City, Austin, Texas, and Shanghai, the firm’s commitment to design excellence is informed by a national depth of expertise, with an approach grounded in local context and human needs.
About RELM
RELM is a landscape architecture and urban design firm based in Los Angeles. We believe a quality public realm elevates neighborhoods, regenerates ecologies, and cultivates public life. Our designs resolve complexity, scale, and uses while evoking a sense of pleasure and verdancy in cities nationwide. Great cities enjoy great public realms.
Photographer: Jason ORear
Habitat Los Angeles in Culver City, SoCal Live-Work Campus images / information received 050626
Location: Los Angeles, United States of America
Los Angeles Buildings
Erenhault House, Beverly Hills, 624 Cole Place
Architect: Harry Gesner
photo : Nils Timm
Sirmai-Peterson House, Thousand Oaks, CA
Design: Frank Gehry Architect
photo : Cameron Carothers
++
LA Buildings Designs
Contemporary Los Angeles Architecture
L.A. Architecture Designs – chronological list
++
American Architecture Designs
America Architecture News – latest building updates
Comments / photos for the Habitat Los Angeles in Culver City, Southern California Live-Work Campus design by SHoP Architects, Steinberg Hart and RELM page welcome.
