Global Technology Company

Redmond, WA

The Campus Modernization is the heart of a 500-acre campus, providing an experience defined by an ecologically rich landscape, deeply rooted in the culture and environs of the Pacific Northwest. The 72-acre site, once home to the company’s original early 80s campus, has been reimagined to enhance workplace innovation and employee experience while providing space that models leading-edge sustainability initiatives and welcomes and attracts a growing campus population.

The campus experience is shaped by a network of paths, promenades, gathering spaces, and outdoor workspaces enveloping all sides of the 17 buildings to achieve the client’s goal of creating the most universally accessible campus in the world. The whole campus is unified by the Forest Thread, an extension of a mature forested watershed for Lake Sammamish that runs through the campus, evolving from naturalistic to urban. The Forest Thread unifies signature spaces such as the Legacy Stand, home to Lake Bill; the Greens, composed of meadows and athletic fields; and the vibrant central plaza, home to everyday gathering and escape from the office and flexible enough to host large events.

The all-pedestrian campus is defined by the landscape, not roads. All services and parking are below grade and accessed from the outer edges of the site. Campus arrival prioritizes transit and active transportation with a recently opened light rail station, a new network of shared-use paths, and extensive bike amenity hubs. Those who drive ascend from the below-grade parking on foot into outdoor common spaces via four iconic portals, flooding natural light and landscape to the lowest levels of the parking garage, creating wayfinding beacons drawing visitors to the surface.

Buildings are integral to the landscape vision, each with a series of indoor/outdoor terraces extending the landscape up onto the structures. The terraces assure that people are never more than two staircases away from an open space that provides escape, fresh air, gathering and collaboration spaces, while also enhancing the campus’s ecological function. These spaces contribute to the company’s ambitious sustainability initiatives including LEED accreditation and Salmon Safe certification by providing habitat for pollinators, reducing rainwater runoff volumes, mitigating the heat island effect, and allowing building occupants to connect with nature at their workplace.

Award:

ULI Americas Award of Excellence, 2024

 

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