The concept for Burbank Studios, a new headquarters for Warner Brothers Studios, was conceived on the back of a napkin by architect Frank Gehry.

Conceived as “icebergs floating along the freeway,” this uniquely sculptural concept called for NHF to fabricate thousands of one-off custom-angled pieces.

“When most of the project components are one-offs, there’s very little production efficiency and anything going wrong in the field gets amplified,” described an NHF site manager. “You can’t ad-lib any solutions in the field, so NHF approached this with an early and extraordinarily-detailed production plan that created room for problems to arise and be resolved quickly.”

The plan was tested as installation began in the days of 2020 pandemic-induced materials and shipping bottlenecks – and it’s worked. Through hundreds of hours of collaboration, planning and testing with Gehry Partners and owner Worthe Real Estate, NHF translated a napkin sketch into a breathtaking new landmark fit for a legendary moviemaker.