REthink Development is an innovative real estate development and consulting company focused on leveraging green building practices and high performance building technologies to build higher value, healthier, and more environmentally sound communities and workplaces for the future. REthink Development advances real estate development by mixing the right technology, design, innovation, and market positioning to deliver a product that smartly differentiates itself in the marketplace. As a result, the popularity, market recognition and perception, and economics of such a differentiated product ultimately drive profitability upwards while increasing the economic, social, and environmental bottom line (“triple bottom line”) for all immediate and extended stakeholders.
Pugh + Scarpa’s 2010 AIA Firm Award Video features Cherokee
June 18th, 2010
On June 10th, 2010 Pugh + Scarpa was officially presented the AIA Firm Award: the highest honor bestowed by the American Institute of Architects. Below is the video the AIA played to introduce the firm and the award. It is clear from the video why they were given the award and why the experience of being at the Lofts at Cherokee Studios is just a bit different and a bit better than the rest.
November 27th, 2007
Mouse House Goes Green
US Army’s MEPS Center to Achieive LEED Gold Certification
Announcing the First Ever Rock-n-Roll Design Showcase
Lofts @ Cherokee Studios Website Live
Lofts @ Cherokee Studios
loftsatcherokeestudios.com
Cherokee Studios will be the most advanced and distinctive building of its kind in Los Angeles. It will be the first “green” LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum Certified building in Hollywood per the U.S. Green Building Council certification system and it will pay homage to the significant musical and Hollywood history of Cherokee Recording Studios, MGM Studios before it, and all the artists who recorded music on the site from Frank Sinatra to David Bowie to Dave Mathews.
Read More>>
Case Study: Contextual Development
March 17th, 2009
REthink Development defines its ethos as “Contextual Development” – a holistic approach to real estate development that integrates all influences, from people to the environment and from cradle to grave, through the entire development process.
Our Definition of Development
The three core principals of contextual development are:
CONTEXT: Context within the development process surveys the past, present and future of the project site and neighborhood in order to earnestly relate it to the surrounding people, places and environment.
SUSTAINABILITY: The tenets of sustainability constitute REthink’s leadership position within the green building industry. REthink’s design and development process brings all environmental aspects of our project to the most logical form: the maximization of environmental and health benefits produced with only a measured additional investment.
STORY: Lastly, story emerges from the nexus of context and sustainability to give meaning to the project’s form, function, and image. Story, as it is defined here, clearly differentiates REthink projects within the marketplace and gives them a distinct marketing edge.
In other words, REthink seeks to build upon a community’s history with a sensitivity to its needs and concerns while revitalizing the spaces in which our fellow community members live, work and play. As a point of departure, REthink’s design is of the highest respect to ecological sensitivity. To that end, conservationist techniques will not be sacrificed for scale to make a project economically desirable. The result? – innovation in building design and advocacy in city planning for the health and prosperity of its residents.
There is a difference between building interventions such as smaller-scale, street-level space and amenities as opposed to large-scale attractions. For example, is it a new sports stadium or museum that will facilitate the attraction and retention of professionals and tourists or the support of neighborhoods to be the catalyst for community, city and regional vitality that is attractive to investment?
To be sure, it can be argued both ways, and one interpretation does not preclude the other. As always, the question is nuanced, yet answered clearly by REthink’s eye towards innovative development.
Housing Creatives in Hollywood
Los Angeles is a vital and dynamic city due, in part, to its enviable number of community assets: temperate climate, coastal lines and varied topography; strong tourist and entertainment industries; and population density that supports professional sports and arts patronage and philanthropy to name a few. Nevertheless, as REthink addresses its concern for Los Angeles’ continued vitality the issue of scale is a point of departure for development.
Young professionals are attracted to vibrant street life, readily available outdoor recreation and live, local music scenes. In contrast to years past, young professionals in the wireless, information age choose stimulating, creative environments in which to work rather than relocating for jobs or firms. The cityscape caption that highlights the large stadium or towers of industry that anchor a skyline are ineffective brochures to attract new residents.
REthink Development’s Cherokee Studios is designed to respond to the needs of these young professionals.
Cherokee Studios is an innovation in green building design positioned on Hollywood’s Fairfax Avenue to offer street-level services and amenities in-keeping with human scale that currently serve Fairfax so well. Cherokee Studios’ design welcomes a diversity of creative industry. Creative enthusiasts and professionals can house their need for live/work space at Cherokee. Taken together, the reflection of scale, services, amenities and diverse demographics of the community and future residents honor the needs and traditions of Hollywood. As a result, Cherokee embodies contextual development and will serve as a case study in commitment to arts industry advocacy and green building design.
Cherokee Studios will be a landmark to Hollywood as the Cherokee recording house was to the music industry because it is both unique and authentic. Cherokee Studios is unique because it is the first mixed-use, live/work building designed for LEED Platinum certification. And the live/work lofts are authentic because of its rich recording history, the continued involvement of the recording studio’s founder, Bruce Robb, throughout the design and development process as well as its comingling of the old with the new as old studio history, material and aesthetic were redistributed for use in the new Cherokee Studios.
For more information on REthink Development and Cherokee Studios, please visit www.REthinkDevelopment.com. Thanks.