Adrian Science Park

Promoting a qualitative suburban experience has been an ongoing commitment of the socially responsible architect. To improve a sense of identity and place is the comprehensive investment on emotionally meaningful design character, distinguishing the anonymous from the memorable. These convictions are the basis for the development of a novel iconicity in the next urban chapter of Silicon Valley. The assertive presence of the Adrian Science Park grows out of the desire to establish a lasting architectural impression for the Millbrae Gateway Transit Center Building, a transportation hub where Caltrain, BART, and a future high-speed rail station near San Francisco International Air-port come together into a singular infrastructural ecosystem. Within this compound, this distinguished glazed volume works both as signage and beacon in an evolving skyline perceived kinetically through the freeway and the BART system itself. The volumetric articulation of the transparent building envelope calls attention on the functions it houses within. Its flexible glassed skin is a metaphor for the flexible thinking that takes place in its suggested boundaries. Its massing is indeed commanding in scale, but largely dematerialized through a disciplined handling of glazing surfaces titled at varying angles both horizon-tally and vertically, generating a floating glass box where outdoor and indoor merge into a unified setting. In taking in the surroundings, the occupants engaged in the artful pushing of scientific knowledge find inspiration and respite in admiring the California landscape. Expressing for the full height of the building the exoskeleton at each short end of the volume bring distinction to the overall architecture. While one side is conceived to be covered in greenery, the opposing side is experienced kinetically from the highway and more leisurely through the lobby. Here the glazed angled canopy signals the arrival to the building, maximizing at the base the authoritative scale of the exoskeleton. In animating the ground condition to foster community life, the blend of hardscape and softscape aims at softening the crisp edges of the upper floors detailed to celebrate the role of technology in our lives. The transit commuters are coaxed into its interiors through a soaring two-story lobby. This entry point is a prelude to the Gothic uplift the building users experience in the atrium. Such vertical thrust prompts a sense of ascent, an aspirational tension toward a collective project of self-improvement, this architectural chassis designed for research labs is conceived for. Greenery modulates the approach to the sense of arrival celebrated with the grand canopy. This marquee is the interface between the scale of the building and the scale of the land around it. In its different functions it works in both realms. But there is a third realm this architectural gesture is part of. The ring of horizontal landscaping bordering the building turns up to become a vertical garden in significant sections of its two-story podium. Channeled in the choreography of individual paths to promote pedestrian movements, each users can establish a personal connection with this grand object, imposing and delicate in equal measure.