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Architects: WRNS Studio
- Area: 469767 ft²
- Year: 2009
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Photographs:Tim Griffith Photography
Text description provided by the architects. Located within San Francisco’s Mission Bay redevelopment zone, this new seven story elevated parking structure serves adjacent laboratories and offices with 1,420 spaces. The north and east façades, which border a public plaza, are clad in perforated aluminum panels whose pixelation evokes California’s redwood forests and nearby foliage. Subtle folds in the panels further disrupt the monolithic surface and engage the pedestrian scale of the plaza below. The south façade, adjacent to a heavily trafficked street, incorporates a steeply canted plaster wall that dramatically registers sunlight and shadow over the course of the day. A recessed ground level along the south and east elevations provides a covered walkway for pedestrians, and lightens the building’s mass by lending the façades the appearance of hovering above the ground.
The primary pedestrian access point is located at the building’s northeast corner, where an upper-level, multi-story platform provides views of the surrounding parks. This volume employs the same formal language as the plaster façade to the south, contrasting with the light aluminum panels that surround it to create a distinctive presence when viewed from the public areas below.
