Echelon Studios builds a $450-million vertical movie studio

A Vertical Studio Design for a Constrained Hollywood Site

The project requires stacking standard movie studio features into a single multi-story building rather than spreading them across a traditional lot. The development features five soundstages, support facilities, offices, set-building mills, and base camp space for production trucks and actors’ trailers. The layout includes parking for more than 1,000 cars situated directly below the soundstages. That proximity required intense engineering to prevent building vibrations from disrupting shoots. Wright explained the structural stakes by noting that soundstages are acoustically isolated boxes, and any adjacent vibration is a risk to compromise the building. A labyrinth of ramps, stairways, and elevators connects the structure so visitors can reach the upper levels independently without crossing active production floors.

Bungalows in the Sky and Historic Hollywood Layouts

To capture the classic feel of early Hollywood lots, the top floor features a landscaped warren of bungalows designed to offer panoramic views of the Hollywood sign, the Griffith Observatory, and downtown Los Angeles. Simon insisted on including bungalows because elite talent, writer-producers, and studio moguls historically favored them as private sanctuaries. People fell in love with them, and so they became the premier real estate on the lot, Wright said of the historic bungalow typology. Every production team wanted to live in one for a year while they filmed their production. We built this neighborhood in the sky based on this extremely Hollywood typology.

Managing a Dwindling Southern California Production Market

The project moves forward despite a broader contraction in Southern California’s entertainment economy. FilmLA reported that feature film shoots fell 20% in the second quarter compared to the previous year, while television production dropped by 30%. Simon initiated the venture five years ago during a period of heavy spending by streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple, long before production budgets tightened. Studio operations head Jamie Crosbie acknowledged that the era of massive streaming expenditures has ended, stating that this recalibration has cleared the landscape a little bit. Even so, developers remain confident that local demand persists. Simon points to expanded state tax credits and a pending 20% federal tax credit as vital incentives keeping filmmakers interested in shooting locally. Everybody I talk to in this industry would like nothing more than to stay home and film in L.A., Simon said.