Media Excerpts
The Wall Street Journal
“In the past two years alone, 25 sound stage projects have begun in the Los Angeles area. Some of them include Manhattan Beach Studios, a $95 million project with 14 sound stages, and Los Angeles Center Studios, a $105 million development with six sound stages. They both are the work of Irvine, California, architect Gary Bastien, who also has begun work on Icon Studios, a $70 million complex with 10 sound stages, in Glendale, Arizona.”
Variety
“Instead of looking at the numbers and saying, ‘Hollywood’s piece of the pie is getting smaller, you have to look at the broader picture and realize that the pie is just getting bigger.”
“‘The sound stage boom is a worldwide phenomenon,’ says Gary Bastien, whose Irvine-based Bastien and Associates designed Manhattan Beach Studios and Phoenix’s Icon Studios…. ‘I’m anxious to be able to market them for Arizona,’ says Linda Peterson Warren, director of the Arizona Film Commission. ‘Having sound stages is a decided asset for us.'”
Mark Brown, News Popular Music Critic for ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
“CityLights had a dazzling debut, aided by a gorgeous sunset, a sliver moon and a balmy evening. The tented pavilion has the relaxed but vibrant atmosphere of a nightclub, albiet a huge one. You can sit down and intently watch the show, or you can hang out in the back and chat.”
USA Today
“Entertainment industry explodes in unusual places…Architect Gary Bastien, whose Irvine, Calif. design firm specializes in sound stages, says he is fielding calls from the East Coast and Europe.”
The Los Angeles Times
“When investors from Singapore to Spain contemplate building a movie studio, many of them seek the advice of Gary L. Bastien. Bastien is neither a powerful Hollywood mogul, nor an influential producer. He’s an architect from Irvine (sic) whose firm showed Hollywood how to build a better sound stage for less money.”
“They have more accumulated knowledge than anyone else on how to design modern sound stages,” said Stephen Smith, one of the owners of Los Angeles Center Studios, a 10-acre project designed by Bastien and Associates, Inc. “They’re terrific.”
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“The new Manhattan Beach facility for making films, television shows and commercials began only two years ago as an idea sketched on a restaurant napkin by developer Ron Flesch of Flesch & Neuhauser of Studio City and architect Gary Bastien, AIA of Irvine…. Flesch and Bastien concluded that building new stages and leasing them out to independant production companies was a sure-fire business proposition.”
“20th Century Fox will be the anchor tenant of a $77 million studio lot in Manhattan Beach being built by an investment group led by Roy E. Disney’s Shamrock Holdings…The deal underscores the demand for sound stages in Southern California by major entertainment companies as they produce programs for the growing television, foreign and satellite-TV markets.”
“The facility [Manhattan Beach Studios], which just finished its first week of business, is the first new film and television studio to be built from scratch in metropolitan Los Angeles in 50 years.”
The Los Angeles Business Journal
“Bastien’s firm has designed everything from sound stages to movie theaters to parking garages for Universal Studios Inc., Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, and Twentieth Centure Fox. It drew the plans for CBS Studio Center in Studio City, AMC/Media City Center in Burbank; Icon Studios in Glendale, Arizona; and the Hollywood Entertainment Museum. He’s also working on studios in Greece and London.”
The Orange County Business Journal
Chapman (University) officials recently toured the new Manhattan Beach Studios. It was designed by Irvine-based (sic) Bastien and Associates, Inc., which has become well-known in Hollywood circles for building studios. Principal Gary Bastien is on the film school’s advisory committee and has done preliminary sketches of what the studio could look like.
“His contacts led him to other executives. They liked the tilt-ups, particularly when he showed how CBS Studio Center could be built for $115 a square foot rather than the average $225 a square foot.”
“The Bastien and Associates, Inc. office has the feel of a 500 year old European castle, complete with high gothic ceilings, huge columns, large wooden doors, and mood lighting.”
The Orange County Register
“Some businesses take their visitors into another world. ‘The Haunting’ for instance.”
OC Architect-The newsletter of AIA Orange County
“Gary L. Bastien, AIA to design the World’s Largest Sound Stage”
The Yuma Daily Sun
“One day, he’s designing a $100 million filming studio in Manhattan Beach, California. The next, he’s starting plans on Yuma’s$3.8 million Main Street Cinemas. But Irvine, California-based architect Gary Bastien understands the importance of building both…. ‘We understood (the theater) would be the cornerstone of the downtown revitalization, and we wanted it to fit in well with what’s already there.”
The Arizona Republic
“Renderings of the proposed [Icon] studio complex include about 100 acres of sets, stage production facilities, even a helipad. Designer Gary Bastien, president of Bastien and Associates, an architectural firm based in Irvine, California, said the state-of-the-art complex in Glendale would rival those the firm has designed for…other movie studios worldwide.”
The Signal
“The ‘entertainment friendly’ development area [Rye Canyon] has drawn a slew of on-site filming of television shows produced by Paramount Pictures, including ‘Melrose Place’ and ‘Power Rangers.'”
ABC Channel 7
“The entertainment industry pumped $27 billion dollars into California’s economy last year. It’s no wonder they rolled out the red carpet at a groundbreaking ceremony today for a new studio [Los Angeles Center Studios].” “Sound stages are the backbone of the entertainment industry, and the backbone is up against the wall. “The Practice” just moved to these new studios [Manhattan Beach Studios]. Sound stages are bursting at the seams, and the race is on to build more.”