Commercial Architecture in Los Angeles
Matter is a Los Angeles architecture and interiors studio designing workplaces, restaurants, and retail — tenant improvements and ground-up projects that give a business a space to be itself. We design rooms people want to spend their day in, and that do quiet work for the brand while they're in them.
Commercial work runs on constraints — a landlord's base building, a lease clock, a budget that has to pencil, and a business that can't stop operating while you build. We take those as the brief, not the obstacle. Every project begins with a Discovery Session that translates how your business actually works into a written Concept Brief, before a single line is drawn, so design decisions trace back to how people move, gather, and get things done in the space.
Our commercial portfolio is largely tenant improvement, where the craft is in reading an existing shell and making it feel inevitable. We've designed creative offices for Arc Boats and GoGuardian in El Segundo and Solar Mosaic in Oakland, the Montana Eyes optical shop in Santa Monica, and the Courtyard Kitchen restaurant — each one tuned to a specific way of working, selling, or serving, and detailed to hold up to daily use.
Because architecture and interiors are one studio here, the building and everything in it are resolved together — millwork, lighting, materials, and the path a customer or employee takes through the day. We carry a project through permitting, landlord and agency coordination, construction, and punch, so what opens is on brand, on code, and built to last past the first fit-out.
See more of our work in the project index, or read about our residential practice and how a project begins with Discovery.
Book a Discovery Session →Frequently asked
What kinds of commercial projects do you design?
Workplaces and creative offices, restaurants and hospitality, and retail — mostly tenant improvements within an existing building, along with ground-up and adaptive-reuse work.
Do you handle tenant improvements and landlord coordination?
Yes. Most of our commercial work is tenant improvement. We design within the base building and lease, and coordinate with landlords, agencies, and consultants through permitting and construction.
How does a commercial project begin?
With a Discovery Session — a structured first conversation that becomes a written Concept Brief, aligning budget, program, and how your business runs before design begins.