Skanska USA redesigns office building in Beverly Hills

Updated look by new architect features penthouse patio and minimalist look

Skanska USA's Clare De Briere and renderings of the project at 8633 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills (LinkedIn, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill)
Skanska USA's Clare De Briere and renderings of the project at 8633 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills (LinkedIn, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill)

Skanska USA has updated plans for a three-story office building in Beverly Hills.

The New York-based developer is modifying an approved plan for the 43,900-square-foot complex at 8633 Wilshire Boulevard, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. It would replace a single-story commercial building.

Skanska bought the third-acre project at Wilshire and Carson Road last year for $16 million. It was already entitled for development by IAG Capital, Enzo Equities and Lucent Capital.

The firm has scuttled the original plans by Gabbay Architects, based in Beverly Hills, and hired Skidmore Owings & Merrill of Chicago to give the speculative building a new minimalist look.

Plans now call for a charcoal-colored building clad in corrugated metal panels, with banks of large vertical windows and a curved corner with inset balconies on its second and third floors, according to renderings.

A penthouse floor, which has a rooftop patio lunch room, is largely hidden from view.

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When Skanska USA acquired the property last year, Executive Vice President Clare De Briere said the company’s interest in the site was pegged on the arrival of a Metro Purple Line station three blocks west at Wilshire Boulevard and La Cienega Avenue.

The building could offer a prospective tenant the chance to take up its own building on Wilshire rather than lease two floors in a tower, De Briere said.

Skanska USA, the U.S. subsidiary of the Swedish global construction giant, has multiple projects in Beverly Hills and Downtown Los Angeles.

In October 2020, it broke ground on a three-story, 46,000-square-foot office building at 9000 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, its first commercial foray into Los Angeles. Initial plans called for a purple building.

Last October, Skanska USA filed plans to build a 15-story office tower in Downtown’s Arts District, wrapped in purple and magenta bands. The 290,000-square-foot building at 1811 East Sacramento Street would include 13,200 square feet of shops and restaurants.

Dana Bartholomew

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