OTL’s Role:
Long Beach Exchange
LOCATION
Long Beach, California
OWNER
LBX Douglas Retail Fee Owner, LLC
GENERAL CONTRACTOR
Snyder Langston
ARCHITECT
DRA Architects
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
Ridge Landscape Architects (RLA)
PROJECT OVERVIEW
- Design
- Build
- Architectural Fountain
- Custom Fabrication
- Value Engineering
Long Beach Exchange brings 260,000 square feet of experiential retail and dining to the Douglas Park planned development in Long Beach, California, themed around the city’s rich aviation history. OTL designed and built the centerpiece architectural fountain, a series of angled stainless steel basins topped with airplane sculptures the City of Long Beach commissioned years earlier.
PROJECT
CHALLENGE
Budget constraints threatened the aviation-themed vision developers had set for the fountain and the surrounding 26-acre gathering area. The site’s existing concrete was also prone to stress fractures, a risk that needed solving before construction could move forward.
OTL’S
SOLUTION
OTL’s design and engineering team found value engineering options that preserved the fountain’s intended vision while lowering costs, then worked with concrete specialists to adjust the mix and add steel reinforcement, reducing the risk of fractures. Hydraulic mock-ups let the development team test various water flows before structural engineering began, ensuring the finished feature met the project’s architectural and engineering needs.
PROJECT
IMPACT
Long Beach Exchange’s fountain now anchors its aviation-themed public gathering space, giving this experiential retail destination a striking centerpiece rooted in the city’s flight history.
