8/14/2019 Creatives Set Up Shop

1/2

n By ASHLEIGH OLDLANDStaff Writer

Industrial warehouses are quickly being transformed into

trendy office space for architects, graphic artists, interi-

or designers and other creative-service professionals on the

sparsely traveled Coronado Avenue just north of EastAnaheim Street in Long Beach.

Carl Dene, owner of Vision Design Studio and member

of the East Anaheim Street Business Alliance, started the

trend on Coronado Avenue when he purchased two ware-

houses that were formerly used as uniform-cleaning

facilities.

The old warehouses were blighted and needed a lot of

work even Denes close friends and family told him that

the buildings should be scrapped. But his vision of restor-

ing the run-down industrial brick and concrete and moving

his graphic design firm into the space has proved to be a

revolutionary idea that other creatives are copying.

I pulled up to these buildings, and they looked like tosome people that they should have been torn down, Dene

says. But I was just instantly connected to the spaces, and I

said, This is going to be one of the coolest streets in Long

Beach.

Since Dene purchased his property in 2007, six other cre-

ative-service businesses have bought and fixed up decrepit

industrial buildings on Coronado and created hip office

Creatives Set Up Shop In NewLong Beach Design District

July 21-August 3, 2009

The creative entrepreneurs of the Long Beach Design District just north of East Anaheim Street on Coronado Avenue include, left toright: Jonathan Glasgow, Interstices Architecture; Paul Murnane, Magnitude; Cynthia Murnane, Magnitude; Lisa Lowe, Ore Originals;Michael Bachman, Kuro; Justin Dionisio, Kuro; Carl Dene, Vision Design Studio; Michael Kollin, Kollin Altomare Architects; and PaulAltomare, Kollin Altomare Architects. (Photograph by the Business Journals Thomas McConville)

DesignDistrict_Layout 1 1/11/10 1:42 PM Page 1

8/14/2019 Creatives Set Up Shop

2/2