An Oasis of Steel

The Culver City office of film production company Chiari Cook Co. looks like warehouse-chic-meets-bachelor-pad-funk.

“We had a plumber come in here one time, and he said, ‘This isn’t an office, it’s a clubhouse,’ ” said Jared Cook, co-owner of the 13-year-old company that specializes in filming commercials for clients in Japan.

The 3,000-square-foot, one-room space features the exposed metal trusses and the corrugated steel roof with skylights that are so anti-fashionable these days. But the effect is quirked up with a metal spiral staircase to a loft crash pad reminiscent of the Monkees’ hangout in the old music-comedy TV series.

A full kitchen and a bar (a former prop) take care of sustenance issues. A pool table, dartboard and exercise equipment are in the middle of the office’s work area.

And to give the place that born-in-a-garage feel, one outside wall opens up to allow vehicles to be driven inside for prop work (or just for fun).

The facility previously was a heater and air conditioner factory that Cook and co-owner Chiari Endo gutted and rebuilt.

“We’ve got to have kind of a flexible facility” to accommodate prop-building, client-pleasing and the sudden increase in temporary employees that accompanies each shoot, Cook said. “Everything is in one room, and it functions as we need it.”

He added: “Our clients come from Japan, where each person gets 3 square feet for a cubicle, and they’re just awed.”

Do you have an unusual work space? Tell us about it at (213) 237-5115.