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Architects: DES Architects + Engineers
- Area: 15000 ft²
- Year: 2016
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Photographs:Kyle Jeffers, Lawrence Anderson
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Manufacturers: Armstrong Ceilings, Board, Chene De L’est, Loll Designs, McNichols, Mondo, Novawood, Paloform, Room & Board, TerraMai
Text description provided by the architects. Located on a 15-acre corporate campus in Silicon Valley, the Moffett Gateway Club is a vertically-elevated recreation and activity center. The Club fronts the campus’ central green space and is integrated into a three-story parking structure.
Positioned between the two office towers, the front facade creates a focal point for the campus, defines the edge of the ground-level greenspace, and screens the parking structure. The facade’s curvilinear form and materials — blue-tinted glass and grey metal panels — relates the Club to the office towers on campus. An open glass stairwell and a cylindrical elevator shaft connects the three-stories while a deep, semi-translucent canopy unifies the building and external vertical circulation.
The elevated location lifts tech employees and visitors above the adjacent sub-urban office parks and their plethora of surface parking. Raised thirty-feet, users enjoy much improved views of tree-tops and mountain ranges off in the distance. Thirteen-foot ceilings and full-height windows make the open-plan fitness space an expansive volume with strong visual connectivity to the garden.
Accessed through the Club’s interiors, the garden provides employees with a new setting to gather and connect outside the workplace. The program includes a full-suite of social spaces: bocce ball courts, fire pits, an outdoor kitchen, herb gardens, and seating areas. The background landscape provides a layered experience where users are separated from the workplace, but connected to the surrounding environment. With views of Moffett Field’s Hangar One—a Silicon Valley landmark—the rooftop incorporates a series of planter boxes made with reclaimed redwood from the Hanger. The redwood brings warmth to the material palette and creates a relaxed environment.
The garden also connects to the local environment with native and drought tolerant landscaping: Fox Tail Agave, Berkley Sedge, and Feather Read Glass. Adjacent to the outdoor kitchen, six types of edible plants — strawberry, pomegranate, rosemary, thyme, lavender, and lemon bushes — provide herbs and fruits.
The Club is the region’s first elevated recreation center that combines indoor and outdoor facilities. With creative positioning, contextual design, and a mix of destination activities, this campus centerpiece will provide long-term value to its new workplace community. The project is targeting LEED NC Gold.
