Modern, Sustainable, mixed-use building in Downtown Oakland

Targeting LEED BD+C Gold

KTA is the Architect, Developer and a Tenant for this four-story mixed-use building located in the heart of Oakland’s downtown, a block from City Hall at the corner of 17th Street and San Pablo Avenue. KTA has been working in cooperation with the City of Oakland to reclaim this unused land area as a building site. Our partner in the project was Rumsey Engineers (now the Integral Group) the preeminent engineers for sustainable HVAC design in North America.

The building is planned as a “Green” building, incorporating many sustainable building and best construction practices. The project is targeting a minimum LEED BD+C Gold rating. As an aspect of this, there are minimal applied finishes in the building. The building’s steel frame includes special seismic elements designed to keep the building not only standing, but also usable after an earthquake. Concrete floors include radiant heat and cooling, supplemented with efficient HVAC units as necessary. Lighting is highly controllable and incorporate LED fixtures.

As both the building’s Owner and Developer, KTA is in the unique position of “walking the talk”, assessing each part of the building for maximum energy and resource efficiency, and balancing short term and long-term costs for both materials and building systems. This has resulted in selection of long-lasting, low-maintenance, durable materials for the building skin and finishes.

The building features approximately 2,300 square feet of Ground Floor office/retail space together with the building lobby for the upper floors, trash, recycling and utility spaces. The Ground Floor space will be designed flexibly to enable possible future use as a restaurant/café. There are three levels of professional office space above. A portion of the roof deck is planned as usable open space, and the elevator serves the roof to provide full accessibility. Total building gross floor area is approximately 15,500 square feet.

One of the biggest challenges so far in the design of this building is that the majority of the building is southwest facing. The site has created heat-gain conditions that have required much thought and ingenuity to blend the competing goals of energy efficiency and desired views. Design solutions include shading devices, specialized glazing, and a highly efficient HVAC system.

The project has obtained planning approval from the City of Oakland and awaits financing.

• Status : On the Boards
• Client : Rumsey Engineers and Komorous-Towey Architects
• Location : 1700 San Pablo Avenue, Oakland, CA