Employee wellness has been a central component of office design for companies in Silicon Valley, drawing people into the office with attractive workspaces, ample activities, and stocked pantries. With increased attention to a company’s products and production sustainability, the office operations are also examined as an important contributor to the company’s carbon footprint. To address this, an industry-leading tech company assembled a team including SWA, XL Construction, Michael Green Architecture, and SERA Architects to develop its first mass timber office.
Mass timber constructions replace the steel column frames of the building with wood, a material that can be carbon negative as the timber may take more carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere than it emits. The carbon dioxide is sequestered once the timber is harvested for building materials. Not only does mass timber reduce the project’s embodied carbon, but it is also a faster construction process and requires lower fuel usage.
SWA took the design initiatives from the client into the site and curated contemporary site furnishings, a 100% native planting pallet, and a pedestrian bike network that weaves through the project site and ties into the larger transit system. This project redefines the idea of a high-performance workplace, showcasing the potential of biophilic design that benefits the user and extends to the greater community. Employee wellness now expands beyond amenities to include healthy building materials, a LEED Platinum certification, and ample access to nature.
Poly International Plaza
Poly International Plaza is an innovative office, retail, and exhibition center development located in the Guangzhou trade district. Sited along the Pearl River and adjacent to historic Pazhou Temple Park, the project presents a precedent toward integrating development with its site and context, embracing the place of garden and sustainability in the society’s...
Lite-On Headquarters
This major Taiwanese electronics company chose the “Electronics Center” of Taipei overlooking the Gee Long River for their new headquarters. The overall concept is of a 25-story slender tower rising above a sloped landscape podium that covers much of the site. Below-grade parking slopes toward the river on one side, with the urban center on the oth...
DNP Office Towers
SWA provided landscape architectural services for a new office tower including the arrival plaza, west and north gardens and upper on-structure view terraces at the 8th and 9th floors. The goal of the design was to broaden and strengthen a designated green spine through an urban redevelopment zone and to create a landscape-dominated environment in a dense urba...
Akasaka K Tower
This urban redevelopment project is on the site of the former headquarters of Kajima Construction Corporation. Mid-rise twin towers were replaced with 150-meter-tall high-rise with office space and high-end apartments on the upper floors. SWA designed an entry plaza for the building, while providing much-needed green space in this dense neighborhood in the mid...