Merrill

Merrill

The design of Merrill started with the surrounding urban context. Situated across from the Caltrain stop in the heart of Downtown, the building sought to improve the existing streetscape while also respecting neighboring buildings. The mixed-use building acts as a gateway to the town and activates an important pedestrian walking path that connects with the rest of city.

The client wanted to set an example of well-designed architecture that improved neighborhood vibrancy. At the same time, they wanted to take full advantage of the zero-lot line site. This became the basis for numerous efficiency and sustainable studies that formed the design vocabulary for the project.

Articulated as two interlocking volumes of stone and wood, the planes of the building angle back from the street to modulate natural daylight that enters the spaces and sweeping views that look across to the mountain ranges on the outskirts of the town. The outdoor terraces of the building are bordered by integrated linear planters, further creating the sensation of spaces reaching and connecting with the natural world beyond. Sharing infrastructure, as well as indoor and outdoor amenities between buildings, allowed the collective impact of the architecture to rise above – the whole greater than the sum of its parts.

The project conserves energy by addressing it at the level of building form and fenestration. By prioritizing daylight, views, and shading, as a driver of building geometry, we were able to use a minimal vocabulary of architectural elements in order to create thermal comfort, high quality of living and work space, and impart the feeling of connection to the broader landscape of the Peninsula.

Merrill celebrates the adjacent Caltrain station by providing easier access and a more pleasant pedestrian and vehicular experience around the area. The project provides significant offsite improvements to strengthen the pedestrian corridor by removing and replacing all sidewalks along the project frontage and creating new and enhanced landscaping on the project corner.

As an acknowledgement to surrounding buildings, a simple material palette of stone, stucco, and western red cedar form the overall massing of the building facades. Woven into the vertically proportioned stucco and stone facades are darker horizontal bands which punctuate the window openings, and slender, articulated glass divides

Merrill represented an opportunity to marry good design with efficient and sustainable practices. Along every step of the way, we sought to elevate design through not just the architecture, but site as well.