There is a stretch of Los Angeles that, not long ago, nobody wanted. Culver City’s Hayden Tract was a grid of low-slung warehouses and light industrial buildings, the kind of place you drove through on your way somewhere else.
The streets were quiet in a city that never is. And then, slowly, something started to happen. An architect arrived. A property owner had a vision. And what was once the most forgettable part of one of America’s most image-obsessed cities became, over the course of two decades, its most creative square mile.
Today, Culver City is home to Amazon Studios, Apple, TikTok, Warner Bros., HBO, and dozens of the most dynamic creative agencies, gaming companies, and content studios in the world. The Hayden Tract alone accounts for 3.5 million square feet of creative office, densely packed, as one real estate developer put it, “with some of the largest players in the world.”
And yet the place feels nothing like a corporate campus. That is not an accident. It is the direct result of a design philosophy that treated industrial ugliness not as something to be demolished, but as something to be embraced, reimagined, and made extraordinary.
The Architect Who Started It All
The story begins with an unlikely partnership: architect Eric Moss and property developers Frederick and Laurie Samitaur Smith, who owned a collection of underperforming industrial properties in the Hayden Tract and had the audacity to ask what could happen if they stopped trying to make them conventional. Moss began transforming the area’s warehouses in the late 1980s, keeping the bones of the industrial structures and layering over them cantilevered steel elements, unexpected geometric insertions, and rusted surfaces treated as texture rather than decay.
The results were described as looking more like a Tim Burton movie set than a conventional office park. That was entirely the point. The buildings became a signal to a certain kind of company: creative, unconventional, willing to work in a space that demanded something of them in return. Once a critical mass of those companies arrived, the gravitational pull became self-sustaining.
The Giants Who Followed
Amazon’s acquisition of the historic Culver Studios in 2017, the original site of MGM, where Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz were filmed, was a defining moment. The company expanded to over 600,000 square feet across the campus and neighboring Culver Steps development, housing Amazon Studios, Prime Video, Amazon Music, and IMDb. TikTok opened its first permanent US office here, citing the city’s position “at the intersection of technology and entertainment.” Warner Bros. HBO settled into 240,000 square feet at the transit-connected Ivy Station complex.
Apple’s commitment is perhaps the most telling of all. The company already occupies around 500,000 square feet in the area, and its new Culver Crossings campus will add another 536,000 square feet, housing up to 2,400 employees, when complete. When Apple builds a campus somewhere, it is a decade-long commitment. The fact that they chose Culver City twice says more about the district’s future than any market report could.
More Than the Big Names
Beneath the headline tenants, a dense ecosystem of smaller companies has grown up alongside them. As of mid-2025, Culver City is home to at least 77 active startups spanning gaming, food technology, green tech, and production services. The broader Los Angeles area averages over $3.1 billion in venture capital per quarter. When an international creative agency opens its first LA office, it no longer starts by looking at Santa Monica or Hollywood. It comes straight to Culver City.
The district feels earned rather than invented. The buildings have history. The streets have texture. Older industrial spaces, like the former Hughes Aircraft facility on Teale Street, recently converted into a creative campus with polished concrete floors and recording studios, retain their character rather than erasing it. That authenticity is not a design feature that can be replicated overnight. It took decades to build. And it is, ultimately, what keeps people choosing this place over everywhere else.
Culver City did not wait for the creative class to arrive. It built the conditions that made them want to come. The warehouses nobody wanted are now the most coveted addresses in Los Angeles.
Ready to Find Your Space in Culver City?
Culver City is one of the most in-demand creative office markets in Los Angeles and California. Whether you are a growing startup looking for your first real home or a scaling company ready to plant your flag in LA’s most dynamic district, we have listings that put you right in the middle of it all. Browse our Culver City creative office space listings.