By Jack Stubbs
Tech giant Meta has for a long while had a significant presence along Willows Road in Redmond, Wash., roughly two miles northwest of the city’s downtown core. Most recently, the company has continued moving a proposed development through the city’s Design Review Process: the project is currently in for its formal review and the applicant is seeking design guidance from the Design Review Board.
The applicant team consists of architecture firm Gehry Partners led by Frank Gehry, and construction firm BNBuilders. Seattle-based Gustafson Guthrie Nichol is the project landscape architect engineering firm Coughlin Porter Lundeen – also based in Seattle – is involved.
The project, located at 10201 Willows Road NE, will occupy the same site as Meta’s under-construction Building X, which will entail a five-story, approximately 350,000 square foot building to accommodate research and development, office, meeting space and associated parking.
Building Z – which sits with Willows Run Golf Complex to the east across Willows Road and Digipen Institute of Technology to the south – likewise entails the construction of a five-story development totalling approximately 336,701 square feet to accommodate research and development and office uses, according to the proposal submitted to Redmond’s Design Review Board.
The proposed Building Z will sit south of Building X, which will be connected to the proposed Building Z via a skybridge. The skybridge would be constructed behind and hidden by the existing trees along Willows Road.
According to the proposal submitted to Redmond’s Design Review Board in mid-June, the project team hopes to accomplish various goals, among them, “[ensuring] that the elements of design, proportion, rhythm and massing are correct for proposed structures and the site; [ensuring] that building scale and orientation are appropriate to the site; and [encouraging] the use of high-quality and durable materials in the project’s construction.
In terms of environmental features detailed in the project packet submitted to the city, a green roof on the east façade will minimize visibility from the street, and the materials will provide durability and daylight to the building. LEED Platinum is being pursued by the project team as well.
