CLIENTCalifornia Department of Public Health

SERVICESNew Construction, Interiors

LOCATIONRichmond, CA

SIZE200,000 sq ft

STATUSCompleted 2005

CERTIFICATIONLEED Silver EB®

The campus office building serves as both a public front door and a communal living room for the laboratory campus. Designed as one great interactive community, it brings together historically isolated departments while maintaining a necessary level of privacy for the agency’s critical public missions.

South entrance
South entrance
East entrance
East entrance

We designed the entry courtyard—with its sculpture garden, sunken grass court, and seating areas—to draw in employees and visitors through both its landscape and architecture. Beyond the entryway, a central atrium feeds natural light into the building, and serves as a community gathering space for numerous agency functions ranging from group staff meetings to all-hands events.

Prior to the State of California’s adoption of LEED, the building was used as a demonstration project for the State’s alternative sustainable design program: the “Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Building Measures” (California Tier 1/ Tier 2 Measures).

West entrance
West entrance

"I think this is a beautiful and humane building."

Dr. Raymond Richard Neutra

Central atrium
Central atrium
Exterior stair detail
Exterior stair detail
South elevation
South elevation

Awards and Press

  • Proving Performance — High Performance Buildings 2012
  • Achieving Leed — Architectural Products 2012
  • AIA San Francisco, Excellence in Architecture — 2008
  • STUDIOS Architecture Highlights Functional Elements to Create a Social Hub for a State Government Campus — Architectural Record 2007
  • Businessweek/Architectural Record, Merit Award — 2006
  • Chicago Athenaeum, American Architecture Award — 2006
  • State of California Gold Nugget, Grand and Merit Awards — 2006
  • AIA East Bay, Architecture Merit Award — 2005

PHOTOGRAPHYTim Griffith