Neglected yet historic department store remade into a vibrant destination anchored by buzzy health food grocer Erewhon
For nearly a decade, the former I. Magnin & Company department store building at 475 South Lake Avenue in Pasadena, California, sat mostly vacant. Preservation-minded redevelopment and the arrival of a new anchor tenant—upscale grocer Erewhon—have transformed the neglected 75-year-old, 41,760-square-foot (3,880 sq m) landmark into a dynamic and intriguing mix of uses: shopping, dining, health care, and child care.
Once a 1950s-era luxury shopping destination, I. Magnin exited its iconic Pasadena building in the 1990s, and Borders became the primary occupant. Following Borders’ departure in 2011, the architecturally distinct building began a decade-long decline. Occupied only by the occasional Halloween pop-up store, the site was subject to break-ins, prone to basement flooding, and the source of numerous community complaints. Nevertheless, the property’s historic bones remained ready for rediscovery.
At the time of the construction team’s initial site walk in February 2021, 475 South Lake Avenue sat forlorn and deteriorating; and yet, it still had the capacity to inspire. Interior wall art left by Borders cited Samuel Butler, author of Erewhon: Or, Over the Range. The find was serendipitous, as Erewhon Market, whose moniker was inspired by Butler’s book, would be the new ground-floor anchor tenant.
The new owners envisioned securing landmark designation, reactivating the site, and rehabilitating the building into a facility with a mix of retail and personal service tenants. The investor group, Yuval Chiprut’s LLC, saw an opportunity to transform the iconic property without losing its historical significance.
Fast forward to September 13, 2023. Hundreds of customers eagerly awaited the grand opening of the 10th Los Angeles–area Erewhon retail location, complete with a new bronze plaque that inscribes the structure’s landmark status. Erewhon’s space includes outdoor patios surrounding the facility, where shoppers can enjoy a meal, a smoothie, rampant people-watching (Erewhon grocery stores are known for celebrity sightings), or various combinations thereof.
Literally on top of Erewhon’s lively ground-floor shopping experience is the building’s second-story occupant, Brella, an innovative app-enabled child care center with elaborately designed interiors. Tia, a women’s health care clinic, also occupies part of the building, and on the lower level is space available for lease.
An ambitious design vision
Originally opened in 1949, 475 South Lake beautifully embodies a postwar department store. The building was designed in the Late Moderne style by the renowned Harold C. Chambers, a notable California architect. Founded in San Francisco, California, in 1876, I. Magnin was known for hiring architects as glamorous as the fashionable clothes the store sold. In 1957, a multilevel parking structure and second-level entry were added to the site.
Yet today, despite later additions and renovations, I. Magnin’s originality remains. One guiding principle of the adaptive use project was to retain and rediscover the building’s historic character, while updating its infrastructure to accommodate multi-tenant occupancy and modern uses. The renovation included upgrading all plumbing, electrical, and mechanical systems, as well as the elevators, and replacing the roof to meet modern sustainability goals and safeguard the longevity of the building.
Rehabilitation challenges
Historic preservation is not for the faint of heart; we took on this challenge after having completed five other Erewhon projects throughout the Los Angeles area. Our firm worked with a private investor group led by Erewhon’s chief development officer, Yuval Chiprut, to bring the latest location to life.
Job one was understanding the building—so, the first challenge became immediately evident: a lack of as-built plans. No construction drawings were available for the building’s original construction or its subsequent renovations. Furthermore, the entire building—including the floor and roof structures—is made of concrete, making the uncovering of structural components difficult.
To locate the rebar beams that reinforced several inches of concrete, our design team used ground penetrating radar (GPR) and X-ray scans, as well as structural analyses based on field data. Understanding the size and location of the rebar beams was critical, because Erewhon needed openings in the floor for ventilation, refrigeration systems, cooking exhaust ducts, utility pipes and ducts, and other infrastructure unique to grocery operations.
With high-tech scans, the design and construction team was able to carefully place infrastructure without cutting through the rebar beams and, thus, weakening the concrete slab. For example, smaller-than-usual floor sinks were installed to fit better between the rebar beams. The design and construction team had to plan utility pipe routes through the floor and roof slabs; in some cases, this work required adjusting programmatic aspects of the store layout.
In addition to the structural challenge, the design and construction team had to configure the building for multitenant use rather than for a single tenant. For example, the team had to find a creative way to provide emergency exits for the second-floor child care space, and coordinate with Pasadena city administrators to ensure that the solution met building code requirements. The team’s inventive solution was to construct a new stairway within the building, along with a new elevator, to serve all floors—from basement to roof deck.
Removing and replacing decades-old elevators also required creative thinking, because the building’s old elevator shafts—or hoistways—lacked sufficient clearance for modern elevator equipment. In particular, the construction team determined that the legacy passenger hoistway was narrowest at the basement level. To provide the clearance required, the team had to painstakingly remove 1.5 inches (.04 meters) of the concrete wall and reinforce the remainder with carbon fiber mats.
Upgrading the building’s utilities was a major undertaking, further complicated by supply chain delays that led to creative workarounds. The project team had designed upgrades of all the building utility systems, including a new 3,000-amp electrical system. During construction, however, the electrical equipment supplier issued delay notices that pushed gear delivery months beyond the original ship date. In response, the team quickly redesigned the electrical system to make use of the legacy electrical service, which had just enough capacity for new uses and could operate on an interim basis until the new switchgear arrived.
A new space for the replacement gear was carved out, in the electrical room, next to the legacy gear. Once the new gear was installed, the electrical service could be transferred from the old system to the new via an overnight shutdown.
Adapting a 75-year-old structure to modern building codes and new uses required collaboration with city of Pasadena officials to mitigate nonconforming conditions. Those officials provided helpful and creative solutions to navigate gray areas of the building code that relate to older structures and the constraints of historic preservation.
Modernizing for sustainability
RDC’s Associate Principal Terry Todd and Senior Job Captain Elise Kunihiro led the design team for the restoration of 475 South Lake Avenue, a historic I. Magnin & Company property. (Carlos Hernandez Architectural Photography)
While upgrading the infrastructure for practical uses, the project team also incorporated leading sustainability features. In particular, the building now conforms with the California Green Building Standards Code, known as CALGreen, the first mandatory green building standards in the United States. For example, the Erewhon market uses a refrigeration system with a carbon dioxide–based refrigerant, which has a global warming potential (GWP) among the lowest of all refrigerants currently available and is the only nontoxic, nonflammable refrigerant on the market.
Other sustainable features include energy-efficient LED lighting and a white roof membrane. Significantly, reuse of the building structure avoided a large amount of embodied carbon by reducing the need for new building materials to be manufactured. Adaptive use reduced the environmental impact that would have resulted from new construction.
Achieving landmark status
To preserve the building’s historic character, the team restored the building’s original architectural features: replacing the building entry doors with a modern aluminum storefront, characteristic of the original design; removing entrance awnings that were not original; and refurbishing the deteriorating original wood-framed fixed windows.
Given this thoughtful restoration, the city of Pasadena designated the building as a historical landmark. The project thus qualified for economic incentives under California’s Mills Act, which provides property tax relief for private property owners who actively participate in the restoration and maintenance of qualified historic properties.
Now, on the outside, 475 South Lake Avenue looks much like it did in 1949, when I. Magnin first opened its doors. Meanwhile, interior spaces have been revitalized to blend the original 1949 architecture with modern functionality, while acknowledging the locational context.
The Erewhon space, for example, includes handmade, oxblood-glazed soffit tiles that were imported from Portugal and that reflect Pasadena’s culture. The red hues throughout the store were selected to represent Pasadena’s iconic New Year’s Day Rose Parade and distinguish it from other unique Erewhon store design palettes that reflect respective local styles. On the exterior, the terrazzo patio tiles recall the original floors, which proved irreparable after years of flooding and misuse.
Erewhon’s reactivating role
Erewhon’s tenancy has been an integral factor in reinvigorating the site and re-establishing the building’s original purpose as a premium retail destination. Rather than selling high fashion, as I. Magnin did, Erewhon makes food fashionable through sophisticated marketing strategies that generate high foot traffic and sales at all its locations.
Popularized by celebrities; social media influencers; and coverage in Vogue, The Cut, People, and the New York Times, among other major consumer media, Erewhon offers a selection of high-quality and unique products, immaculate merchandising, and celebrity brand collaborations, such as the Hailey Bieber’s Strawberry Glaze Skin Smoothie, sold at each store’s tonic bar.
The rehabilitation reactivated the publicly accessible areas surrounding the building with upgraded amenities, transforming neglected, unused space into a dynamic zone that is consistently populated throughout the day and into the evening by Erewhon customers and curious passersby. The terraced ground-level outdoor area provides a pedestrian connection between the parking lot and Lake Avenue, with dining tables and seating surrounded by new xeriscaping—requiring little irrigation—and shaded by mature, fruitless olive trees and bioclimatic, louvered pergolas equipped with electric heaters, misters, and fans.
The adaptive use of the landmark building aligns with Erewhon’s commitment to sustainability and responsible business practices while maintaining the cultural fabric of the community and restoring the dignity this historic building deserves. The Pasadena community celebrated the transformation of 475 South Lake Avenue, the historic I. Magnin & Company building, and continues to embrace it since the reopening.
TERRY TODD is associate principal with RDC, and ELISE KUNIHIRO is the senior job captain at RDC who led the historic-renovation design team for 475 South Lake Avenue.
