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Makers Quarter Block D

LEED Platinum, Net Zero collaborative offices upend workplace conventions

Information

Location San Diego, California
Size 53,325 SF
Completion 2018
Certification LEED Platinum

Makers Quarter is both a place and a collective ethos inspired by the Maker Movement, which provides a creative environment in downtown San Diego to inspire entrepreneurs and artists to challenge convention and achieve new heights in innovation. The six-story Block D was designed as a kinetic, collaborative office hub at the heart of the Makers Quarter, providing a creative environment for entrepreneurs and artists that reinforces a sense of community. Public spaces within the building include balconies and an open entry courtyard, as well as exposed vertical circulation systems, showing the energy of movement within the building. The ground floor includes retail and restaurant suites open to the public, activating the street level surrounding the site. With a nod to the pop-up galleries and community venues that brought the project to life, Block D allows users to display art, which animates the façade and gives life to the architecture itself.

Impact + Innovation

Makers Quarter Block D was designed to achieve both LEED Platinum certification and Net Zero Energy—the first commercial building in downtown San Diego to do so—but the tight urban site presented challenges in solar orientation as well as designing for an undefined user. However, basic principles of optimizing high performing spaces started with an understanding of the occupancy, use, and hours of operation. Designing for the immediate unknowns as well as change over the building’s lifespan, flexibility was incorporated to allow Block D to achieve its aspirational sustainability goals. Highly flexible office suites utilize natural ventilation with motorized windows and garage doors on each level. An exposed concrete frame integrates with the natural ventilation systems to utilize a night purge of thermal mass for passive cooling during the day. A high-performance facade utilizes two active shading systems that enhance daylighting and provide flexibility to operate preferences within individual tenant spaces.

Process

The vision for Makers Quarter was determined through community engagement with local artists, businesses, and residents. The process was guided by the re-appropriation of public spaces and abandoned lots that gave way to the idea of an office building as an extroverted development. Block D was designed as a collaborative and kinetic office hub, promoting spontaneous and chance interactions by way of open circulation systems, courtyard, and elevated collaborative balconies. In developing an innovative market rate development, the team challenged traditional material and systems assumptions about this building typology to push cost efficiency for the project. As a goal, every building material had to provide multiple functions and be highly durable to minimize operational cost in the future. The team utilized local manufacturing for all the façade components, apart from the motorized sunshade system, to reduce transportation and promote local jobs. By establishing a direct collaborative workshop process between the design team and glazing subcontractors, metal panel manufacturer, and concrete contractors, the team minimized materials and processes for installation and refined the detailing for cost efficiency throughout the process.

People

Team

Rod Kruse
Jeff Shaffer
Dana Sorensen
Jeremy Knoll
Christianne Jordan
Matthew Winter
Matthew Porreca
Paul Kempton
Danielle Buttacavoli
Philip Bona
Thomas Statham
Frederik Heuser
Daniel Brown
Kyle Goebel
Celina Echezarreta
Glenn Veigas

BNIM takes a very site specific approach in their planning efforts, and in doing so allows for community engagement, through tactical urbanism, to be embedded and integrated into the value system of their design strategy. We’ve been most impressed with their genuine excellence and holistic approach to sustainability and urban density as it relates to the design of the office space within Makers Quarter. By intertwining public realm and open space, they’ve helped us to create an environment that appeals most competitively to prospective tenants and our ethos of future workplace.

Stacey Pennington, Makers Quarter Client, Principal/Founder of SPL Urban Planning