In Architecture Review, Talent Agencies Come Off As Even More Dickish Than Imagined

[Picture of Endeavor, CAA buildings]

Architecture as intimidation seems to be the story behind LA Times Christopher Hawthorne's review of talent agency buildings. Endeavor hired LA-based Neil Denari to design their building, and Ari Emanuel, the agent who helped found Endeavor, tells the architecture critic: "When we hired Neil, we wanted the design to be about attack mode. Attack, attack, attack! CAA is different--they want to protect, protect, protect." After one aborted tour, Hawthorne finally gets inside the CAA deathstar, designed by global firm Gensler, discovering this central point: Since mail clerks and assistants strive to become agents, there is no fixed hierarchy at an agency so the "architectural divisions between the agency's various job levels must be clearly separate but also fluid, at least symbolically." Ironically, of course, Gensler went on to be hired by two of CAA's closest competitors: ICM and the William Morris Agency. The latter is building a new Beverly Hills office that'll be done in about two years.
· Type A Spaces [LA Times]