Inspired Creativity

by Jonathan McGaha | September 1, 2014 12:00 am

The Wasatch and OquirrhMountains provide a stunning backdrop for San Jose, Calif.-based Adobe System Inc.’s new sleek and modern technology campus in Lehi, Utah. Located on 38 acres, the new campus is located between Orem, Utah-based Omniture, which Adobe acquired in 2009, and Salt Lake City. The new campus is home to more than 900 employees.

Adobe desired a flexible, functional, sustainable and fundamentally unique campus, and architecture firm WRNS Studio, San Francisco, was charged with creating a workplace that was a reflection of employees’ inspired selves, while being a source of motivation and connection, high energy and thoughtful repose.

Completed in 2012, the LEED Gold certified campus is made up of a 200,000-square-foot office building and an 80,000-square-foot amenities building that includes basketball courts, a café, fitness center and more. An atrium links the two buildings and a campus green.

 

Master Planning

The site’s long and narrow design was a master plan driver for workplace energy and Adobe’s creative spirit by offering a metaphor for the dramatic topology of the Utah Valley. Brian Milman, partner at WRNS Studio, describes the site’s master plan as including three expanded office buildings that can be portrayed as three flowing lines, along with the amenities building, and the two spaces captured by these lines, the grand atrium and a campus green. “Just as the sweep of the mountains shape the inhabited valley, the long sweep of the office floors-scaled to propel the natural metaphor and facilitate workplace interaction-define and embrace the two primary campus spaces,” he says.

Milman goes on to say that the planning and design was also driven by Adobe’s mission to attract and retain top talent by offering an environment that reflects innovation, diversity and hard work. “Central to Adobe’s desire to create a strong sense of place was providing employees and passerby with a direct visual connection to its culture of hard work balanced by recreation, sport and health,” he says. “In response, spaces for each spin out from a grand atrium and engage the surrounding landscape. Likewise, the expansive glass facades make visible the activities within-showcasing not only people working but also eating in the café, exercising in the fitness center, and playing on the basketball court.”

Adobe’s main objectives were to accommodate offices and an amenities space for its growing workforce while reinforcing the campus’ culture. Milman explains that it was important that the campus embody the cultural importance of youthfulness, diversity, collaboration, hard work and an active lifestyle. “Programmatic elements, including offices, conference rooms, basketball courts, exercise rooms, and cafes, needed to be arranged to facilitate communication and a sense of community, and to provide easy access for all employees to the campus amenities,” he says.

The four-story office building is long and narrow and provides all employees with access to natural light, expansive views and a direct connection to the outdoors, the reason so many choose to live and work in Utah, Milman notes. “Our design and planning solution met these objectives by delivering an open office with transparency and natural light,” he says. “By integrating atrium spaces into the campus, we were able to create a sense of openness, providing gathering spaces throughout the large campus.”

 

High-Tech Design

The building’s finned façades appear opaque like the mountains from the oblique distance, opening into transparency for drivers travelling by. The architects chose 20,000 square feet of Holland, Mich.-based Dri-Design metal wall panels in Raleigh, N.C.-based Umicore Building Products USA Inc.’s VMZinc’s 1.5-mm Quartz Zinc to clad the office buildings. Made locally to meet sustainable requirements, the Dri-Design metal panels bring an industrial, high-tech look the office buildings. Metal wall panels were also used for mechanical screens to mask rooftop equipment, while aluminum louver panels were used throughout the project at mechanical air exhaust and intake areas.

Installers from Southam and Associates Inc., American Forks, Utah, placed the Dri-Design panels over Z furrings and mineral wood insulation. To give depth to the building, the panels were installed both horizontally and vertically. To exploit the abundance of sunlight and changing skies, the horizontal panels were used on a larger scale with custom shadow-fin profiles. Additionally, the zinc panels bring contrast to the glass curtainwalls used throughout.

Metal wall panels were considered for both performance and aesthetic reasons. “From a performance perspective, harsh Utah winters and impacts to the building caused by the accumulation of snow and strong winds informed the maintenance objectives for the Adobe Utah Campus,” says Milman. “An exterior rainscreen system was selected in consideration of prolonged exposure to cold and wet conditions, and to meet energy and sustainability goals.”

Aesthetically, Millman adds, it was important to distinguish the amenities functions of the campus from the office, which was treated primarily with glass curtainwall. “The weathering aspects of zinc was desired as an elegant contrast to the glass curtainwall, and created a connection to the changing landscape of the Utah Valley,” he says.

For the project, Steel Encounters, Salt Lake City, installed formed aluminum fascia and paratep panels from Pohl Inc. of America, West Valley City, Utah; in addition to modifying and installing Norcross, Ga.-based Kawneer Co. Inc.’s 2500 PG Unitwall system unitized aluminum and glass deep fin curtainwall and Kawneer’s 1600 System 2 structural silicon glazed aluminum and glass curtainwall. The building also features a VS-1 System long-span curtainwall by Innovation Glass LLC, Red Hook, N.Y., and proprietary vertical structural aluminum mullions and through-the-joint point supported glass, a thermally broken cladding system and integral canopy that was installed by Steel Encounters. The glazing is Owatonna, Minn.-based Viracon’s VE1-2M clear glass and VRE 19-67 crystal gray glass.

In an effort to mimic Adobe’s transparency, Steel Encounters supplied 42-foot-tall glass panels, which were connected with proprietary vertical aluminum mullions without horizontal mullions to minimize obstruction. At the peak of operations, crews were installing 150 feet of curtainwalls a day.

Adobe’s Utah corporate campus is the third largest building in North America for the company. It had an aggressive budget and schedule, needing to be designed and constructed in 27 months with a budget of $74 million.

“The Adobe project was one of the most delightful undertakings Steel Encounters has ever been involved with,” says Tom Jackson, vice president, architectural division manager at Steel Encounters. “The project architect, contractor, owner and developer team worked together to create an incredible, aesthetically pleasing project, on time and on budget!”

 

Adobe Utah Technology Campus, Lehi, Utah
Owner: Adobe Systems Inc., San Jose, Calif.
Exterior architect: WRNS Studio, San Francisco
Interior architect: Rapt Studio, San Francisco
Construction manager: Gardner Co., Salt Lake City
General contractor: Okland Construction,Salt Lake City
Curtainwall/louver fabricator/installer: Steel Encounters, Salt Lake City
Metal wall panel distributor/installer: Southam and Associates Inc., American Forks, Utah
Curtainwall: Innovation Glass LLC, Red Hook, N.Y., and Kawneer Co. Inc.[1], Norcross, Ga.[2]
Fascia/paratep panels: Pohl Inc. of America[3], West Valley City, Utah
Glass: Viracon[4], Owatonna, Minn.
Metal wall panels: Dri-Design[5], Holland, Mich.
Zinc: Umicore Building Products USA Inc.[6], Raleigh, N.C.

 

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