Rick Caruso, founder & CEO of Caruso Affiliated (CSQ Cover Visionary in spring 2014), and Lewis C. Horne, President of CBRE for LA and Orange County (CSQ Visionary in spring 2015), have built on a brotherly bond formed while friends in college. In a win-win deal, Caruso Affiliated and CBRE have partnered in reviving the previously abandoned Masonic Temple on Brand Boulevard in Glendale.
Built in 1929 and designed by architect Arthur G. Lindley, the temple was used for decades by the Masons. Today, six floors of the nine-story building – purchased by Caruso Affiliated in spring 2015 – are home to CBRE. Those floors had been unoccupied since 1957.
The partnership signifies – among other things – the local strength of Caruso Affiliated and CBRE along with LA-based architecture behemoth Gensler who executed the redesign. For Caruso Affiliated, it was their first foray into office space and for CBRE it was an expansion from their Downtown LA regional headquarters.
Additionally, it is another step in the reimaging of the workplace. The four floors CBRE occupies accommodate 125 employees and when their additional two floors are finished, the staff size will double. As Horne said, the office is set up so that any employee can access their work from any desk – what he terms “free address.”
As another sign of the adaptive reuse movement, the only mystery that remains is what Caruso Affiliated plans to do with the remaining three floors.
