Be Prepared for the Weather at This Burlingame Amenity Center

At 27,310 square feet, the two-story amenity center is not the largest building at Burlingame Point, an 18-acre California office development by Kylli, a major Bay Area real estate company, with Meta Reality Labs as its sole tenant. Still, the compact structure may well be the waterfront property’s jewel, courtesy of Gensler San Francisco, which oversaw the architecture of the expansive project. As senior associate and design director Bob Perry notes, “The center was intentionally positioned as a destination within the campus.”

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Interior Design celebrates Gensler's 60th anniversary with this special section featuring Q&As and dozens of projects in four of the firm's practice areas including cities, health, workplace, and lifestyle. Check it out today.

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Designed to include fitness and childcare facilities on the ground floor, a terraced water-view restaurant on the second level, and a rooftop garden with enviable shoreline vistas, the concrete-frame building features post-tensioned, long-span beams that allow for a flexible, easily adaptable interior. No less alluring than the amenities inside is the structure’s striking exterior: a sawtooth facade clad in continuously anodized aluminum panels that reflect the area’s ever-changing weather conditions. “The unique finish gives it a chameleonlike quality,” Perry observes, “while the angled orientation intentionally directs interior views toward the waterfront.”

Composed of prefabricated elements, the folded envelope limits glazing to 43 percent, reducing solar heat gain while filling the interior with indirect natural light. Given the LEED Gold–certified building’s success at balancing sustainability, durability, and aesthetics, it’s no surprise the center recently received an AIA San Francisco Honor Award for Architecture.

BENEDICT TRANEL; ELLIE WANG; SAMANTHA BUCKLEY; CHRISTOPHER PAYNE; JAY WILSON; BOB PERRY; LINZY GRISWOLD; CHRISTIAN POPPELL; JIYOUNG LEE; GUNWOOK NAM.