Pedro Point Shopping Center / Lowney Architecture

Architect: Lowney Architecture
Location: Pacifica, California, USA
Project Team: Ken Lowney, Tim Sloat, Tony Valadez
General Contractor: Pankow Special Projects, L.P.
Structural Engineer: Ingraham DeJesse Associates
Project Year: 2007
Project Area: 17,000 sp ft Anchor Space, 3,000 sq ft Retail Space
Photographs: Courtesy of Lowney Architecture

The renovation of the Pedro Point Shopping Center by Lowney Architecture shows innovation in creating a sustainable adaptation. The project earned a LEED Gold certification by utilizing sustainable construction practices and encompassed and adapting most of the original 23,000 square foot building.

By using vernacular Northern California architecture with a modern and green twist the Pedro Point Shopping Center was saw a return of its formerly trafficked sidewalks. A modern concrete and stone veneer finished in bright colors adds visual and architectural interest to a normally cookie cutter archetype of the shopping mall.

Punched volumes add architectural detail. Varying the planar surface of the building both breaks up the monotony of the façade and highlights storefronts and their entrances. The extension of the exterior wall above the gable line rounding the corner again adds a greater emphasis and importance to the main feature of the plaza, the stores.

This project proves not only that regreening of architecture which may be past its prime is a possibility but that it can be done within reason and budget constraints. Dramatic new shadows fall over the surface of the building, enticing new, and old, customers to this remodeled and revamped shopping plaza.