Department of General Services, May Lee State Office Complex

Establishing an urban fabric for the current and future River District, Dreyfuss + Blackford Architecture is collaborating with ZGF on the State’s largest office complex to-date. Together with Hensel Phelps, the team will deliver a large campus with four high-performance office towers over a multi-function podium and a parking structure on a site north of Downtown Sacramento.

Each office building provides a rich amenities program calibrated for the needs of the building’s occupants as well as unique landscaped open spaces developed with RELM Studios. Featuring an integrated approach to sustainability, the project will exceed Title 24 by more than 15% and achieve the lowest practicable Energy Use Intensity (EUI).

The design of each tower conveys the significance of the civic functions housed within, while authentically reflecting the River District’s eclectic industrial character through the choice of materials including timber and metal. The site’s landscaping offers shade trees aligned to reinforce pedestrian circulation and wayfinding. The “Town Square”, a central public open space, and landscaped walkways at ground level tie together the podium and four towers into a coherent and inter-connected user experience. The towers are further connected by a three-story bridge between the two north towers, and a second level timber bridge across the Town Square, which forms a weather-protected link between the east and west of the campus. Amenity spaces are integrated into the podium, which is bisected by the Green Pathway, the central circulation spine that connects one end of the site to the other.

RBOC is designed to achieve zero net energy (ZNE) and zero net carbon (ZNC) for the entire site through State-purchased carbon-free green power.