The Royal Laundry Complex is a historic laundry plant located at 443 S. Raymond Avenue in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

consisting of close to 72,500-square-foot.

Gordon Kaufmann Gordon Bernie Kaufmann (19 March 1888 – 1 March 1949) was an English-born American architect mostly known for his work on the Hoover Dam. Early life On 19 March 1888, Kaufmann was born in Forest Hill, London, England. Education K ...

, a prominent architect who also designed the

Hoover Dam Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on Se ...

and several buildings at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

, designed the plant. Kaufman's

Spanish Colonial Revival The Spanish Colonial Revival Style ( es, Arquitectura neocolonial española) is an architectural stylistic movement arising in the early 20th century based on the Spanish Colonial architecture of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. In the ...

design for the plant signified a shift in his style to include

modern Modern may refer to: History * Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Phil ...

elements, which ultimately came to dominate his work. The complex currently serves as the world headquarters of Bluebeam, Inc. and was formerly the company headquarters of the

Disney Store The Disney Store is a chain of specialty stores selling only Disney related items, many of them exclusive, under its own name and Disney Outlet. It was a business unit of Disney Consumer Products with the Disney Parks, Experiences and Products seg ...

History

The site's main plant was constructed in 1927 for the Royal Laundry Company, a laundry service founded in 1910. The plant's south annex, a

Streamline Moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design ...

building topped by a pylon, was added to the complex around 1930. An additional building providing drive-up service was constructed in 1939, an adaptation to the rise of the automobile; this building was topped by an overhead sign advertising the business in 1955. The laundry complex, which is located in an industrial neighborhood of Pasadena, has been described as one of the most architecturally significant industrial buildings in the city. . The Royal Laundry ceased operations in 1980s and became a vacant property. A parking ramp was built in 2005 with four stories with capacity for 225 cars. The complex interior was converted to corporate office space by October 2008 by Clive Wilkinson Architects. Hoops Retail Stores, DBA

and a subsidiary of

Children's Place The Children's Place Inc. is a specialty retailer of children’s apparel and accessories headquartered in New Jersey. It also markets apparel under the Children's Place, Place, Baby Place, and Gymboree brand names. As of October 31, 2015, it o ...

, commenced a 13-year lease of the building in 2006. The complex was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on September 27, 2007.

Disney Consumer Products Disney Consumer Products, Inc. is the retailing and licensing subsidiary of the Disney Parks, Experiences and Products segment of The Walt Disney Company. Previously, Consumer Products was a segment of Disney until 2016, then a unit of Disney Con ...

took over Disney Stores back from a bankrupt Hoops Retail on May 1, 2008 but maintained its headquarters here. In 2012, Karlin Real Estate, a West L.A. real estate investment company, purchased the complex for $19.3 million only to place back up for sale in mid-February 2014. In late August, the complex was sold to Swig Co., a San Francisco real estate investment company. In mid-November 2018, the Disney Stores USA headquarters moved out of the complex to Disney's secondary headquarters, Grand Central Creative Campus. Since April 2019, it is the headquarters of Bluebeam Inc. 443southraymondave

References

Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in California Spanish Colonial Revival architecture in California Streamline Moderne architecture in California Industrial buildings completed in 1927 Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Pasadena, California Buildings and structures in Pasadena, California Former laundry buildings {{LosAngelesCountyCA-NRHP-stub

History

See also

References