The Lighthouse

Designed to provide shared amenity space for a group of biotech companies in South San Francisco, this beautiful structure features a café and dining space, lounge, meeting center, fitness facility and private offices. While sustainability was a driving factor behind the overall development, and a key reason for choosing mass timber, wood added further value by creating a warm and beautiful gathering space. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels are supported by an intricate, elegant glulam framing system, allowing the structure to also serve as finish. Because they wanted to display the material in its purest form, designers worked to hide connections and utilities as much as possible, allowing visual attention to focus on the wood itself while creating a single architectural expression. The mass timber structure features 20-foot double cantilevered overhangs that provide outdoor seating areas as well as solar protection to minimize heat gain, which helps contribute to the project’s net-zero energy goals.