Giving Makers Quarter's Block D a “Personality”

SAN DIEGO—Construction is beginning on Makers Quarter's Block D project, a six-block work/live/play district in Downtown's East Village, and BNIM principal and architect Matthew Porecca tells GlobeSt.com it will be an interactive prototype for the workplace of the future. The BNIM-designed project is a six-story collaborative office hub with retail and restaurant on the ground floor, inspired by the neighborhood's maker spirit.

Makers Quarter is a project of development team L2HP (Lankford & Associates, HP Investors and Hensel Phelps). BNIM was one of the key design firms that created the master plan for Makers Quarter, which broke ground on its first phase in April 2016. Makers Quarter urban planner Stacey Pennington, principal of SLP Urban Planning, says of BNIM's holistic approach, “By intertwining public realm and open space, they've helped us to create an environment that appeals competitively to prospective tenants and our ethos of future workplace.”

Most office buildings are focused inward, but the BNIM team wanted Block D—the first step toward the 1 million square feet of downtown office space that will comprise Makers Quarter—to transform that convention to create dynamic office space inside a building actively engaged in its community. The team pulled service core and amenities to one side to allow for flexible spaces, cross ventilation, daylight and views. A concrete frame allows the structure to be exposed for thermal mass, providing optimum thermal comfort. Operable windows and garage doors provide fresh air and permeability. The south and west façade have a motorized screen system (this is the first such active façade in Downtown San Diego) that adjusts to time of day and time of year.

According to BNIM, the result of this human-focused design strategy is a highly efficient and resource-effective building that will retain its value. According to Porreca, “At Makers Quarter, we sought to tap the creative energy of this place. The character of what's taking shape here will appeal to the young and the entrepreneurial. It will accelerate the recognition of the city as a tech center, spurring economic development through urban revitalization.”

We spoke with Porreca about the project and giving a building a “personality.”

GlobeSt.com: What's unique for you about this project?

Porecca: The way the office part is being designed, it's big departure from typical office, with an offset core, more cross-ventilation, cross views and more daylight penetration. The workplace of the future is built around a human-centered approach: bringing the outdoors in, with circulation systems pulled from outside the building, collaboration balconies, open and exposed stairs—it's a more active and healthy building. The idea is to stimulate interaction within the building. It's also part of bigger district. All of Makers Quarter is to create more connections, being a future workplace innovation hub for Downtown San Diego and for the region. Interaction is important for innovation.

GlobeSt.com: How do you approach projects in order to give them a “personality”?

Porecca: For this project, we started with the proportions of the building. The building has a transparency, but also some interesting elements such as how we're treating some sun-shading elements. This will give the building a different personality day to day. There are manually sliding elements that users can maneuver, change the façade each day, and a motorized section connected to a weather station. The sunshade will retract on a cloudy day, but it's turning and tuning so that if the sun is high in the summer, it will bounce light into the building. Day to day, the building will be very animated, which will give it a personality. It will respond to its surroundings and be interesting; not static architecture, but a more dynamic, active building.

We're building into this overall vision of Makers Quarter activation and building community. The motorized section does have some maintenance—similar to shades inside the building that are motorized, but not too extensive. This connects people to controlling their environment. From workplace studies, we know that having controllability is a big piece of workplace satisfaction, similar to the way you can open and close windows in a house.

GlobeSt.com: How do end users respond to this approach?

Porecca: This building is quite unique, so there are not a lot of comparables. There is aa lot of buzz about the creative workplace, thinking about the workplace in a very different way. Especially in San Diego, we're capitalizing on the outdoors, giving people the option to open windows and garage doors. It gives people choice. We have a lot of technical data about health and wellness and how this element of controllability will contribute to the well-being of the occupants. When they really understand the benefits, they will like it.

GlobeSt.com: What else should our readers know about Block D of Makers Quarter?

Porecca: All of the strategies on this building are being prototyped for what's to come. We're looking forward to the future workplace and the next generation of creative office.

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Carrie Rossenfeld is a reporter for the San Diego and Orange County markets on GlobeSt.com and a contributor to Real Estate Forum. She was a trade-magazine and newsletter editor in New York City before moving to Southern California to become a freelance writer and editor for magazines, books and websites. Rossenfeld has written extensively on topics including commercial real estate, running a medical practice, intellectual-property licensing and giftware. She has edited books about profiting from real estate and has ghostwritten a book about starting a home-based business.