Last month AN took a look at how Silicon Valley’s campus model is changing to keep up with its urban competition. But as we pointed out, the greenest form of campus is adaptive reuse. One of the most successful new examples is the recently-renovated Hercules Campus, the former home of Howard Hughes’ Hughes Aircraft in Playa Vista (part of the LA’s fast-growing “Silicon Beach“). The campus restoration was completed by Brenda Levin and EPT Design, with firms like Lean Arch designing individual offices. The growing facility is now home to YouTube, Konami, advertising agency 72 and Sunny, and UCLA’s Ideas Campus.

Converting the badly deteriorated facility was a, ahem, Herculean task that included converting the aging steel and wood buildings into light-filled, open-planned environments and stitching together outdoor spaces with courtyards, walkways, bioswales, mounds, fountains, and boardwalks. Below is a slideshow of  historic and present photos of the historic, and thriving, campus.