At San Francisco Bay, in direct neighborhood to the new basketball stadium, the transportation network company UBER has started building its new company headquarters, composed of two office buildings for a total of up to 3,000 employees. The glass architecture aims to reflect UBER's open corporate culture.
Gartner will clad the two 55 m and 33 m high buildings in the south of the metropolis with highly transparent exterior and entrance façades and several skylights. The buildings are connected by two earthquake-resistant steelglass bridges. A unique feature of the new development is the special-purpose solution for the numerous glazed atria which are naturally ventilated via windows (4.3 m x 3 m in size) in the exterior façade.
To ventilate the semi-conditioned atrium space inside the external glazed envelope known as 'the commons' a transparent, steel-framed glazing system featuring motorized bi-fold units was designed. These operable window units, 3.0 m wide by 4.4 m tall, are computer-controlled in conjunction with operable skylights to maintain comfortable temperatures in the atrium and significantly reduce the need for mechanical ventilation. Among other particularities, the building features two earthquake-proof steel-glass bridges. These technically challenging bridge connections must be able to withstand earthquake-related movements of up to 762 mm.
Unitized aluminum façade, skylights, 166 electrically operated windows, building façade, entrance façade, two bridges.
OWNER: UBER, San Francisco, CA
ARCHITECT: SHoP Architects, New York; Quezada Architecture, San Francisco, CA
CLIENT: Truebeck Construction, Redwood City, CA
FAÇADE CONSULTANT: Heintges Consulting Architects & Engineers P.C., San Francisco, CA
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