America Center Phase II
Client: Steelwave, USAA
Location: San Jose, California
520,000 sf
Type I Construction
The America Center is a development comprised of two office buildings, an amenity building, inner courtyard garden and a separate parking garage for 800 cars. The design creates a campus of buildings with 500,000 sf of office space.
The buildings are located on landfill that is subject to settlement. Within 1 year of construction the site settled 14 inches. The design implements bedrock piles to ensure the buildings are fixed with adjustable vaults to assure utilities are adjustable.
The 6 story office buildings have a shared courtyard, an outdoor amphitheater and at one end is anchored by a 800 car parking structure with a 20,000 sf amenity building. The amenity building houses a cafe and bar on the ground floor.
The office buildings are clad in a unitized curtainwall system that incorporates dynamic glazing allowing tenants to control the shading coefficient of the glass. This is the largest dynamic glazing installations currently installed in the United States.
Instead of trying to make a statement with the building façade, the skin of the building was played down and the shape was simplified to form a monolithic shape,
The center park area provides an expansive outdoor experience for the tenants of the two towers. An amphitheater provides an outdoor gathering area for company gatherings and retreats.