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2008 Notable Projects: Civic |
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Architypes’ Notable Projects |
01 |
United States Federal Building, San Francisco, California |
When architecture engages social, cultural, political, and ethical currents, it has the potential to transform the way we see the world and our place in it. It is from this intersection of broad societal currents that we approached the design for the new Federal Building in San Francisco. Our primary interest was to produce a performance-driven building that would fundamentally transform its urban surroundings, the nature of the workplace, and the experiences of the people who use it while making intelligent use of natural resources. For me, this project represents the epitome of an optimistic architecture; an architecture that synthesizes its complex forces and realities into a coherent whole. Thom Mayne Building Description: The slender, 18-story, 240-foot tower creates a landmark for the City of San Francisco, while the four-story annex connects to the scale of the adjacent neighborhood. The large, open public plaza along with the shared public facilities, provide valuable assets to the community. In addition, the design redefines the culture of the workplace through office environments that boost workers’ health, productivity and creativity. A dramatic example of sustainable design principles, the building’s shape and orientation maximize natural airflow for cooling and ventilation, and take advantage of natural day light for the majority of the office interior. These features, combined with a number of other energy-saving elements, significantly reduce overall energy consumption compared to conventional commercial office buildings in the United States. Building Materials: The San Francisco Federal Building incorporates building materials and construction strategies that minimize waste and energy consumption. The building minimizes pollution by replacing high proportions of Portland cement in its concrete foundations and frame. During the manufacturing process, Portland cement is associated with very high levels of greenhouse gas emissions. In the Federal Building’s concrete mixture, 50% of the pollution-intensive Portland cement is replaced with blast furnace slag, a recycled waste product from the steel industry, significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions resulting from conventional concrete. This environmentally sound choice also results in higher-strength concrete and has a warm, light-colored tone that contributes to the favorable daylight penetration within the office space. The GSA mandated that 75 percent of materials used during construction be recycled. Currently, the project is recycling 87 percent of its waste material. Carpet, paint and furniture were carefully considered with respect to the project's sustainable goals. Electrical: Lighting is typically the largest energy cost for an office building, representing up to 40 percent of a facility's total energy load. The new San Francisco Federal Building's lighting strategies improve the workplace and are a critical facet of this project's sustainable design. Approximately 85 percent of the workspace is illuminated with natural light. Ambient light, the general illumination in an office, comes from sunlight channeled through the windows and reflected off walls and ceilings to extend its reach with minimum glare and intensity. With an average overall ceiling height in the tower of 13 feet, natural daylight will penetrate deep into work spaces. Powered lights are also provided to supplement the natural light. Through simple sensors, the building's automated systems manage the balance between powered and natural daylight. The powered lights are on only when people are at their workstations. Together, these approaches reduce energy used for lighting by approximately 26 percent. Work Environment: Several features support federal initiatives to promote health and improve productivity: the location of the cafeteria on street level across the plaza and the use of skip-stop elevators—elevators that stop at every third floor, opening onto soaring lobbies with wide, open stairs—promote cardiovascular fitness and reduce lost work hours. These lobbies and stairs, in addition to a sky garden and a 90-foot high entry lobby at street level, provide a comfortable setting for informal meetings and social interaction. A handicap accessible elevator that travels to every floor is also available. The tower's high ceilings and glass facades provide 85 percent of the building's tenants with views overlooking the city. The outer perimeter of the tower is configured with open offices and 52- inch-high workstation partitions, maximizing access to natural light. Fritted glass panels that enclose meeting rooms and offices located in the middle “spine” of the tower, provide both privacy and access to natural light. Quality Control: Three independent systems are used to verify that the building is meeting energy conservation goals. Energy use will be monitored by the GSA Energy Center and compared with conventional federal buildings and the project's goals. To verify sustainability, the project is registered with the LEED program. The project team and the GSA's Office of Applied Science have allied with a number of academic researchers to verify workplace productivity strategies. Among them: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, and the University of California Berkeley, Center for the Built Environment. | Owner Lead Design Architect Executive Architect Collaborative Artists Engineers and Consultants Photographer(s) |
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02 |
San Jose City Hall, San Jose, California |
The San Jose City Hall and Civic Center is the new centerpiece of a seven block redevelopment district of new and existing buildings unified through streets, walkways, plazas, courtyards and fountains. Buildings in the surrounding district include a new performance hall, elementary school, rebuilt church, a joint library shared by the City and University and two public parking garages. The project comprises an eighteen story office building to house the City departments, the Council Chambers, a major civic rotunda, exterior plaza and below grade parking. The main entrance is on Santa Clara Street through a sweeping public plaza. The focal point of the plaza is a transparent domed entry serving as a visible symbol of the city government as well as the main project entry and lobby suitable to accommodate large public events such as speeches, concerts and exhibitions. The curved wall defining the main plaza, together with the rotunda space, acts to unify all components of the facility. The rotunda is complemented on the east side by the office tower, which houses city departments and the plaza level permit center, and on the west side by the three-story council wing, which houses the Council Chambers, public meeting rooms, retail spaces and additional departmental offices. A grand staircase in the rotunda leads to the prominently located Council Chambers in the second floor council wing. The chamber is also accessible along a walkway of exterior steps that follows the plan of the plaza wall. Exterior finish materials include stone, metal panel, clear glass and concrete. The thin building proportions are achieved with a unique dual structural system that utilizes concrete shear walls as “bookends” to provide lateral strength. The ultra-thin proportions of the tower, combined with a west-facing brise soleil, support daylighting and natural ventilation throughout the building. The architecture of the civic center is unique and recognizable while maintaining the presence and importance of a City Hall. Text, Drawings and Model: |
Owner Architect Associate Architect Engineers and Consultants Contractor(s) Photographer(s) |
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03
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Speculative project for Boston City Hall, Boston, Massachusetts |
City Hall Version 2.0: Architectural Upgrades: An Open Menu for Public Interfaces Sleeve plugs the existing “hood” and courtyard openings with a linear public path that weaves through the existing structure, provides a more transparent frontage along Congress Street, and culminates in a viewing gallery overlooking Faneuil Hall. Wrap proposes a new ground plane that rises up to mask the existing structure; this second skin accommodates new programs on the plaza and creates public access along a landscape ramp and around the existing structure via circulating catwalk elements. Sky Live camouflages the existing City Hall building by cladding its most prominent facade - the underside- with an LED pixel net. The soffit screen broadcasts a live video feed of the sky above it, making it digitally disappear. |
Owner Design Architect Drawing(s) |
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04 |
Bronx County Hall of Justice, Bronx, NY |
The image of the courthouse in society, particularly in the center of the Bronx was of primary concern in the planning of the building. The project goal was to integrate the 775,000 SF building consisting of 47 court parts for the Supreme and Criminal Court, 7 Grand Jury rooms, space for the Department of Corrections, the Department of Probation, the Bronx District Attorney, contract agencies, and parking for 240 cars within the existing community. Organized in a linear manner around an open civic space the program is layered from public to private, with the public circulation facing the open space and animated by a series of cantilevered stairs that augment the public elevator system. Within the courtyard sets a 2 story freestanding cylindrical building that serves as the jury assembly room, gives scale to the large urban space and is the symbolic as well as formal focus of the project. The exterior wall design responds to the various functions within and orientations of the building. Its South and West facades screen the private circulation corridors and are designed to allow the penetration of daylight deep into the building. The curtainwall in this area takes the shape of a folded plane; this folded wall provides shadow, reflection, and physical depth. It also allows for “light shelves” to be placed in the dimension of the folds. These light shelves reflect daylight into the space and onto the angled reflective ceiling surfaces; they also shade the spaces directly adjacent to the glass wall, thus reducing heat gain and glare. The aesthetic intent of these elevations is to expresses the building as open and un-intimidating. This is achieved by not concealing the building functions behind a representational face, but by allowing the buildings’ program, structure and circulation to be viewed, providing a literal and metaphoric transparency of the judicial process.
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Owner Architect Joint Venture Architect Engineers and Consultants Photographer(s) |
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05 |
Vaughan Civic Centre, Vaughan, Ontario |
The winning scheme in a design competition, the new Vaughan Civic Centre will be located in the community of Maple within the City of Vaughan. Originally an agricultural area located at the northern edge of Metropolitan Toronto, Vaughan is in the process of making the transition from its rural past to an urban future. Since 1981 the town has grown from approximately 30,000 to 220,000, experiencing unprecedented growth and consequently replacing farmland with housing and big box retail. The intent of the new Civic Centre is to set a tone for environmentally responsible and civic-minded development in the 21st century.
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Owner Architect Engineers and Consultants Contractor(s) Drawing(s) |
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06 |
Seattle City Hall, Seattle, Washington |
In the mid-1990s, the City of Seattle was faced with important decisions about its aging and seismically unsafe city government buildings. Renovation and retrofitting were found to be both too expensive and inefficient. Authorizing a 1999 master plan, city officials decided to consolidate city offices in a new Civic Center, a three-block development with City Hall as its focal point. |
Owner Architect Engineer(s) Consultant(s) Contractor(s) Photographer(s)
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07 |
Austin City Hall, Austin, Texas |
The new City Hall and Public Plaza is located at the edge of the dynamic warehouse district on the shores of downtown’s lake. The project is dominated by landscape and incorporates limestone, copper, glass, water and shade to create the city’s living room. The 118,000 square feet houses several city departments along with the Mayor, City Manager, City Council offices, Council Chambers, and a café and city store along urban Second Street. |
Owner Architect Associated Architect Engineer(s) Consultant(s) Photographer(s) |
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08 |
United States Federal Courthouse, Austin, Texas |
Located in downtown Austin, the courthouse will occupy a full city block directly west of Republic Square Park. The square configuration of the site sponsors a highly compact, cubic building form. The stability of the cubic form exemplifies the strength, coherence and dignity of the judicial system. Floor plates approach a square configuration. A plinth forms a base holding the sidewalk-edge, providing anti-ram protection and addressing the scale of the park. |
Owner Design Architect Engineers and Consultants Drawings(s) |
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09 |
Sustainable and Innovative Solutions: Civic Buildings |
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10 |
Additional Resources: Civic Buildings |
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