Philanthropic Organization Headquarters – Redwood City
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson designed a philanthropic organization’s headquarters in Redwood City, as a flexible and vibrant workspace that fosters collaboration while highlighting wellness and creative interaction through thoughtful design.
Engaged to create a vibrant headquarters for a mission-driven philanthropic organization, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson was tasked with designing a healthy workplace with flexible environments for collaborative and team-based work, balanced with accommodations for quiet focus. Supporting teams that work across science, education, and community initiatives, the organization required spaces that could adjust to evolving working methods and varying team sizes.
Larger programmatic elements like a fitness center and dining hall are located on the ground floor, with the upper floors dedicated to a creative environment. Conference rooms of different scales are organized around the building core, providing privacy and acoustic separation. Additional gathering and pin-up areas, hotel desks, and reservable lockers are also integrated into the program, creating built-in flexibility that responds to the evolving nature of in-office work.
Working with a challenging triangular floor plate, the project team lined the perimeter with individual workstations to take advantage of natural light and accommodate the ebb and flow of team sizes. Moving inward, the double-height atrium at the heart of the project is an active social hub throughout the day. While the original base building did not include a floor opening between the second and third levels, an expansive opening was cut to bring natural light across multiple levels from the sawtooth roof monitors above. A new communicating stair, cafés, and varied seating areas activate this hub. Amenities are tucked into expressive feature volumes, each clad in shingled panels that provide texture on the outer shell. A bright blue accent color is revealed in places where the volumes are ‘carved’ by the stair or built-in seating alcoves, creating a distinctive and memorable forum for interaction.
Inspiring artwork and biophilic elements enliven each floor, contributing to a healthy, human-scale environment. Large-scale murals and installations by local artists add to the pops of color used for wayfinding, providing a dynamic workplace backdrop.
Design: Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
Design Team: Gregory Mottola, Tina Lindinger, Stephanie Grandjacques, Sandy Lam, Douglas Speckhard, Victor Tzen, Kelsey Bemmes, Stephanie Pak, Kay Bromley
Contractor: BCCI Construction
Furniture Vendor: KBM Hogue
Photography: Adam Rouse Photography
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