340 Bonair
Design and programmatic priorities were simple: create an equitable workplace that supports multiple ways of working in our dynamic world, improve the health and wellbeing of all users, ensure the project has a positive environmental impact and supports the University in the long view.
Built for Stanford University, 340 Bonair Siding Road exemplifies a forward thinking and sustainable workplace that brings natural light, equity and a healthy environment to all.
The design navigates the workplace needs of the modern team. With colleagues working remotely, traveling and coming into the office, varied work settings to support a wide spectrum of activities are required: Quiet heads-down work in private areas, Collaborative discussions in the conference center, Large all-hands events in the Plaza.
Views are democratized and all workstations naturally lit. Large volumes were created, high ceilings opened up and spaces cleared of the unnecessary. Glazed exterior walls inserted and materials and finishes selected to maximize the transmittance of natural light to all inhabitants.
The raw concrete slab was ground and its natural beauty revealed. Structural beams and columns exposed and highlighted. The building systems exposed and unpretentious.
The Plaza is the heart of the project and is full of natural light and long views, designed to promote knowledge sharing and equality across the organization. As an equalizer, the Plaza mixes employees from all levels (junior technician to senior executive) together in one non-hierarchical setting.
With a significant focus on energy and carbon reduction, the project location and program strategy devised to achieve 26 metric tones of co2 emission reduction each year from elimination of SOV trips. The workstation settings were saved from going to landfill adding another 324 tones of carbon reduction from furniture and material reuse. The project team reviewed approximately 12,000 existing pieces throughout Stanford’s campus for potential reuse, and in the process, educating staff for future reuse projects across the organization.
New custom furniture was built by Californian manufactures.
In collaboration with the International Living Future Institute, all new materials were of the highest environmental quality with the ‘Declare’ label certification of a responsible material.