Friendship Foundation Campus

Designed by Gensler, the Friendship Campus encompasses a 50,000-square-foot building that will serve the Los Angeles area through its mission to transform the lives of people with special needs, their families, volunteers, and eventually, society at large. Planned around a pair of courtyards and unified by a single, upward-sweeping landscaped roof, the facility provides a scholastic space for younger children as well as a community center and a therapeutic side for people of all ages. Imagined as being one with its surrounding landscape, a sweeping roof shelters indoor-outdoor program spaces in the mild coastal climate. Coastal landscaping encircles the campus building and covers much of the roofscape as well. Construction is underway for the project, which sits on a 3.5-acre site, and the new campus is expected to begin serving the Foundation and the greater community in 2024.

“This project is so important to Portia and me because of its significance, because of its purpose, and because of the fact that we can make a difference in the lives of these special needs kids.” —Gensler co-CEO Andy Cohen

“If we can create an environment where every child with special needs feels that they’re important, they’re valued, they’re understood, and they have friends, then I am all in.” — Friendship Foundation board member Portia Cohen