Renzo Piano has been commissioned to return to the Bay Area, this time to design a 350,000 square foot “Plaza District” for a mixed-used City Center development in San Ramon. Similar to his prized California Academy of Sciences building in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, the new multi-use district will feature expansive glass walls and a lush living roof.
“The project is entirely conceived around a generous piazza surrounded by six pavilions of varying sizes,” said Renzo Piano. “All of the pavilions have a direct relation to the piazza and each of them contributes to animate it.”
Catering to multiple generations of the Bishop Ranch area, the project will act as a “social hub” within the community. An open-air theater, a variety of dining options, first class retail and community services will all be united within a series of glass encased plazas topped with vegetated roofs.
“The City Center is a porous, permeable urban architectural composition. Inside is open and oriented to the piazza, and with the same force and conviction, the outside is open to its surrounds,” added Antonio Belvedere, partner at RPBW. “A good presence of restaurants, café terraces and shopping opportunities together with culture, music and nature will create a true authentic vitalized City Center for San Ramon.”
City Center is designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop in collaboration with the San Francisco based firm of BCV Architects. The project is being commissioned by developer, owner and manager of Bishop Ranch, Sunset Development Company (SDC).
The Plaza District will be completed in late 2016 as the Center's first phase. Subsequent phases will include 479 residential units, a 169 room hotel and four new office building totaling 800,000 square feet.
