‘Midcentury modern is as American as punk rock’: 22RE on its latest full-scale project

In the industrial area of Hayden Tract in Culver City, LA, a fully restored, vaulted 1950s factory is now home to a new office for music branding and merchandising specialist Ceremony of Roses. It is the work of 22RE, a firm founded by Dean Levin in 2021 and named after the engine of his beloved 1980s Toyota flat-bed truck, currently parked in the alley behind his design studio a few miles east in West Adams, where Levin also has a furniture workshop. ‘They last forever and I’ll never get rid of it,’ Levin says of the vehicle, with laid-back pride.

This hyper-level focus on longevity and recycling is a recurring theme in the artist, architect and designer’s work, which includes door and desk knobs made from rocks collected from years of surfing in Rincon and Malibu, or 300-year-old cypress planks from a ryokan in Japan, which will be used in an upcoming LA store project.

Dean Levin and 22RE

South African-born and LA-raised, Levin studied architecture at the prestigious Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, but started his professional life as an artist. His first show was at New York’s Sean Kelly Gallery in 2014, which was followed by other gallery representation in New York, LA, London and Brussels. ‘What drew me to making art was that I was making it myself and I was fully connected,’ says Levin, who works with sculpture, plaster and oil paint. ‘After graduating, I felt that architecture was very far away as it’s such a layered practice to produce buildings and on such a large scale.’

Levin immersed himself in the New York art scene, but his work was increasingly pointed at architectural problem-solving, drilling with light, space and form. With a longing for more community-based projects, rather than solo art endeavours, Levin worked with institutions such as Nike and Rafael de Cárdenas prior to developing an artistic practice informed by his architectural background.

After returning to LA and buying a 1950s modernist home in Laurel Canyon on the first day of the 2020 lockdown, Levin found out it was designed by an assistant of pioneering modernist architect A Quincy Jones. He started renovating it and ‘fell in love with design’ while approaching it from a sculptural perspective. Documenting his progress on Instagram led to others seeking his services. ‘It’s so many different layers and it’s so collaborative, and beautiful things come out of it,’ he remarks on the process.

To that end, Levin and his growing team of designers at 22RE have worked on private residential properties from Spanish revival to midcentury modern, and, in a few short years, have partnered with brands such as Depop and Maison Kitsuné. They look to how modernists, such as Rudolph Schindler, Richard Neutra, John Lautner and Frank Lloyd Wright, used local wood such as cedar, redwood, Douglas fir and white oak, and then mix these with stainless steel – ‘we love a soft and hard moment here,’ says Levin.

22RE unveil new offices for Ceremony of Roses

This design approach was carried into 22RE’s latest full-scale project at the new offices for Ceremony of Roses, a company that produces collections of clothing and accessories for artists such as Adele and Lil Nas X. ‘We wanted this office to not feel like an office,’ says Levin. To do so, vintage Isamu Noguchi ‘Akari’ pendant lamps were added to several of the spaces. ‘I think we used his whole lighting collection for this project,’ jokes Levin.

Conceptualised in collaboration with creative director Madeline Denley, of Never Far Studios, the new offices feature a series of very different spaces, including a 1970s-style lounge inspired by Latin American design, specifically Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer and his French Communist Party Headquarters in Paris. ‘I thought, what is the coolest office that I could ever think of?,’ explains Levin.

The main area features six custom-designed aluminium desks. ‘We tried to make these sculptural tables feel adaptable to any situation, so we added little rolling carts for traditional storage space, but you can roll them around and share with your neighbour if you are not using it,’ says Levin. White oak cabinets line the walls, with a large central bookcase invoking a walk-in closet feeling, with plenty of storage and fridges hidden behind wooden panels. ‘The whole project started with the cabinets,’ he continues.

A freestanding dark-stained white oak structure was created as an anchor and focal point of the office, and houses a listening room and a conference room. The first is lined with wall-to-wall brown carpeting and walnut shelving, while the second features Pierre Jeanneret floating-back chairs around a deco-inspired burl wood table. ‘I wanted it to feel regal, warm and inviting,’ says Levin.

'It was fun to work on this with all the specific rooms, to not make it look like an office but to function like one,’ he continues, citing other influences as Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid and Maria Pergay. ‘Koolhaas is my number one starchitect. Modernism to me in LA is like punk rock. Many people say it was born in LA. Europeans and New Yorkers might say something different, but mid-century modern is as American as punk rock.’ 

22reoffice.com

This article appears in the August 2024 issue of Wallpaper*, available to download free when you sign up to our daily newsletter, in print on newsstands from 4 July, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today