Playa Vista Master Planned Community

Written By Katy Robinson
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Playa Vista, now a key part of Silicon Beach, is a 500-acre urban infill mixed-use development in Los Angeles on the former site of Hughes Aircraft’s headquarters. The World War II-era Spruce Goose “flying boat” airplane was built here in a building that has been restored and is occupied by Google and its YouTube subsidiary. The project, now complete except for one commercial site, includes 5,800 residential units, 3-million square feet of commercial, a mixed-use retail/residential center, and numerous supporting elements including an LAUSD elementary school, two community centers, a public library, an outdoor live performance amphitheater, numerous people and dog parks, and a 27-acre freshwater marsh.

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Services

ZCS has provided a full suite of sustainability/green building and mitigation monitoring and reporting services since 1996. Playa Vista sustainability highlights include:

  • ZCS led a consulting team that developed precedent-setting Residential Sustainability Guidelines that were first released in 1999. They were developed while the first version of LEED was being piloted.

  • ZCS has LEED certified 9 onsite projects: 5 office buildings, the school, the fire station, a community center, and a marketing center. All of the office buildings are LEED Gold; The Resort community center and Playa Vista Elementary School are LEED Platinum; the school is also CHPS Verified.

 
 

  • 93 percent of all construction waste was recycled for each of the project’s first 15 years. Current construction operates under the City of Los Angeles construction recycling requirements.

  • Municipally-supplied recycled water is utilized for in-ground landscaping and for nonpotable commercial buildings uses.

  • The freshwater marsh and riparian corridor met their 5-year performance requirement for the number of returning bird species in 1 year.

 
 

Project Team

Owner: Brookfield Residential
Former Owner: Playa Capital Company
Former Owner: Maguire Thomas Company

 

Client: Playa Capital Company
Client: Tishman Speyer
Client: Lincoln Property Company
Client: Brookfield Residential
Client: Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD)

Katy Robinson
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