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‘Nicktoons’ Nickelodeon animation offices - Burbank, CA (late 1990s) - Designed by AREA Architects

“The client’s mission statement was rather unusual: Make it look like a cartoon. Yet that directive was appropriate, for Nickelodeon’s “Nicktoons” is the first animation studio to be built in the Los Angeles area in 35 years and the only television animation studio in the world. The raw material was a collection of five old warehouse buildings linked by an alleyway that AREA enclosed, transforming it into an art gallery for the Nickelodeon animators. Its main reception area is adjoined at one end by a large conference room and at the other by a gymnasium with a basketball court, which can also function as a screening room. When sliding doors are opened, the total length is an expansive 150 ft., and within it are a sound stage with windows to allow viewing by visitors and, behind a curved orange wall, a green room/employee lounge. 

The space, which also serves as an assembly space for all 350 employees and company guests, is entered over a bridge flanked by two green “infinity mirrors,” and it connects to a mezzanine level by a staircase with parapet shaped like “dripping green slime.” The rest of the facility is divided into a production technology core and five production groups. Each of these groups is defined by an identifying color and a geometric shape, used in ceiling ribbons and carpet patterns to lead visitors to their destinations and used again within the production unit spaces. Each of these spaces includes workstations and also a “living room” where animators gather for informal team meetings beneath a suspended ceiling shape that gives the room intimacy and identity. Adding to the sense of unreality, the furniture was all custom designed based on models from the 1950s and from the Nickelodeon cartoons; seating is slightly overscaled, and upholstery fabrics lend “bathrobe comfort” to encourage casual lounging. 

Throughout the public areas, colors are vibrant, even electric, but the AREA designers have taken care to treat the interiors of private offices and workstations with neutral tones so that the animators can work with their own colors without the distraction of others nearby. And for “letting off steam” in this high-pressure creative environment, employees are offered a landscaped terrace with tables and umbrellas and a nine-hole miniature golf course.