Suburban campus becomes an urban neighborhood with landscape-centered approach
{"autoplay":"true","autoplay_speed":"8000","speed":"1000","arrows":"true","dots":"false","loop":"true","nav_slide_column":5,"rtl":"false"}
{"autoplay":"true","autoplay_speed":"8000","speed":"1000","arrows":"true","dots":"false","loop":"true","nav_slide_column":5,"rtl":"false"}

DETAILS

LocationMountain View, California, United States
ClientWRNS Studio
Size17 acres (site); 6 acres (landscape)

301-381 East Evelyn Avenue is home to a uniquely preserved architectural example of 1980s office park design. The aim of this project is to retrofit this suburban office campus into a diverse, connected, and urban environment. SWA approached the site from the same perspective as that taken for successful urban neighborhoods. A hierarchy of outdoor realms organizes site elements and integrate the Avenue into its surrounding locale, whereas the office park had previously been isolated and distinct. A grand front plaza welcomes visitors and workers alike, while alleys encourage people to meander through the site. The central street creates a flexible linear space, and a central park serves as an everyday “commons” that office tenants’ breakout spaces embrace, establishing a more modern, indoor-outdoor working environment.

Related Projects

Poly International Plaza

Poly International Plaza is an innovative office, retail, and exhibition center development located in the Guangzhou trade district. Sited along the Pearl River and adjacent to historic Pazhou Temple Park, the project presents a precedent toward integrating development with its site and context, embracing the place of garden and sustainability in the society’s...

Ichigaya Forest

“Ichigaya Forest” is the privately owned, publicly accessible, major open space on Dai Nippon Printing Company’s 5.4-hectare new world headquarters in the Shinjuku Ward. Vertical development and production modernization that extends underground was made possible the creation of this 3.2-hectare open space. Over half the site is now planted wi...

Poly Dawangjing Office Complex

SWA’s landscape design for the Poly Dawangjing Office Building Complex draws on fluidity, suggesting pebbles (the development’s three towers) set within the intersection of two waterway corridors. The landscape forms of the drop-off courts, central arrival plaza, and planting areas are also characteristic of this fluvial influence. Broad ribbons of riparian ve...

Lite-On Headquarters

This major Taiwanese electronics company chose Taipei’s “Electronics Center” overlooking the Gee Long River for their new headquarters. The overall concept is of a 25-story slender tower rising above a sloped landscape podium that covers much of the site. Below-grade parking slopes toward the river on one side, with the urban center on the ot...

Symantec Chengdu

SWA provided landscape design for Symantec’s research and development complex. The site was previously inactive and banal until SWA’s design reinvigorated the area, linking the building program and connecting the site to the larger city. The landscape design produces a “brocade,” weaving together the building and site program, and offering an oasis amid the de...

Giant Interactive Headquarters

SWA collaborated with Morphosis Architects on a new ecological park and living laboratory for Giant Interactive Headquarters, a 45-acre corporate campus in Shanghai, China. The design concept blurs the distinction between the ground plane and the structure, weaving water and wetland habitats together with the folded green roof of the main building design. The ...

Exxon Corporate Headquarters

Exxon’s Corporate Headquarters is situated on 200 acres of rolling mesquite woodland in Texas’ Las Colinas Development. The design captures the essence of a subtle Texas landscape by careful selection of native plants and preservation of existing woodland and wetland areas. The building itself is surrounded by a more “domestic” landscape within a forest ...

Roche Diagnostics

As the first manufacturing facility in Asia, Roche Diagnostics hopes to set a model for future projects in the region. Located in Suzhou, a city with a strong tradition of gardening, this flagship factory will not only meet Roche’s global standard, but will be infused with the spirit of the city’s gardens, distinguishing it from a stereotypical factory. A clea...