Lisa Katz, president of scripted content at NBCUniversal Entertainment, remembers what the lot was like before its major redesign, which was unveiled last fall.
“It was always great working on the lot,” says Katz, who’s been at NBCU for nine years. “But I didn't realize what was missing. It felt very separate. There wasn’t much cross-collaboration and interaction.”
Mike Schur, who often took walks around the 396-acre campus when he was writing, producing and directing for The Office, Parks and Recreation and The Good Place over the past 20 years, recalls the old digs, too. “It was sort of industrial, like they threw up a bunch of temporary buildings because they needed space and just never redesigned them. It was uninviting. I remember thinking all the time, ‘This could be so much nicer.’”
NBCU Studio Group chairman and chief content officer Donna Langley and Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts agreed. They signed off on a sweeping overhaul of the space, beginning with the Campus Project, announced in 2020. Five years later, the lot boasts a gleaming new 350,000-square-foot creative office tower (One Universal) and the Commons, an 84,000-square-foot community hub containing restaurants, an event space, two screening rooms, a theater and a roof deck with views of the San Gabriel Mountains. All these new elements are connected by the Paseo, a flora-filled promenade lined with soft gravel and plenty of places to work, meet and enjoy live music and a biweekly farmer’s market.
“Now the whole front of the lot is gorgeous,” Schur says. “Just walking through something that feels so calming and natural is such a better way to be creative. I think people working on the lot have more pride.”
Fostering creativity, inspiration and collaboration were among the chief goals of the Campus Project — part of a larger 25-year evolution plan that the Los Angeles City Council approved in 2013. Envisioning a workplace that encouraged people to get away from their desks, NBCU leadership sought to leverage the city’s sun-soaked natural beauty and blur the lines between indoor and outdoor space. With 14 new state-of-the-art sound stages and 17 sound mixing stages — including a new post-production facility housing two television mixing stages, a color bay and a client lounge — the new campus allows people to move seamlessly through the creative process; you could take a meeting, be on set, screen footage and have a premiere and afterparty without ever leaving the lot.
Portland-based LEVER Architecture won a three-month-long competition to design One Universal and the Commons; LEVER was paired with Field Operations, which previously designed the landscaping for New York’s High Line and Chicago’s Navy Pier.
“When we were talking with designers,” says Ed Chuchla, NBCU’s chief real estate officer, “we said, ‘We’d like you to put the city back in Universal City.’ A city connects people in places; we now have a place to bring people together. A city has streets that are lively, full of activity. So, we filled all the lower levels with food and coffee and places to gather. We brought the city back to Universal City.”
The design team is fond of calling the Commons the “heartbeat” of the lot. It’s many things at once: a hangout spot, a mess hall, a physical embodiment of the vibe that leadership aimed to cultivate. Close to the lot’s Lankershim Boulevard gate, the Commons’ distinct hallmark is a circular, white and silver brise-soleil on the exterior; called the Veil, it’s meant to invoke a zoetrope, an early animation device.
On the ground floor, a marketplace features six made-to-order stations serving varying cuisines, a separate sushi bar and a “hydration wall” with complimentary infused waters and teas and Starbucks coffee. Trees and plants abound throughout, and glass walls permit unobstructed views of the green space outside. The Commons’ bottom floor also houses the Peacock Grill, a fine-dining boîte with a private room, elevated fare and a peacock-feather motif throughout that offers a cheeky nod to the past and present. Come quitting time, the Grill offers happy hour and live music.
Artwork peppered throughout champions the company’s legacy: A gallery of charcoal drawings in the lobby depicts iconic NBCU heroes, such as Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson, from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. A wall in the stairwell leading to the second floor features quotes from celebrated figures in the company’s history, both on-screen and off.
The Commons’ second floor is home to two screening rooms and a cozy theater outfitted with 250 seats upholstered in turquoise velvet. In the hallway, a star pattern on the navy carpet pays subtle homage to the company’s galaxy of stars, and a glass case shows off memorabilia from hit shows. Gems include the “Humanity Eliminator” that Maya Rudolph used as Judge Gen on The Good Place, a football Tracy Morgan used as Tracy Jordan on 30 Rock and five Emmy Awards, going back to the trophy Marcus Welby, M.D. won for Outstanding Dramatic Series in 1970. The third level is an expansive event space, and the roof deck offers stunning vistas and a walking path that’s one-tenth of a mile — perfect for creatives like Schur who summon the muse by getting their steps in.
If the Commons is the heartbeat of the campus, One Universal is the brain. The 11-story office building overlooks a lawn used for events and outdoor movie screenings; its broad entrance stairs serve as stadium-style seating. In keeping with the indoor-outdoor philosophy, One Universal is adjacent to outdoor conference rooms that offer air conditioning and TVs.
Erin Underhill, president of Universal Television, says she’s already seen benefits from those outdoor conference rooms. “While we were in there, writers we have deals with walked by and popped their heads in, and business got done. We decided to go outside and have a little fresh air, and I feel like it just lifted everyone’s mood. There was this free-flowing, dynamic hour that we wouldn’t have experienced in our [old] conference room.”
The full version of this article can be found in emmy Magazine, issue #9, 2025, under the title "A Universal Experience."
