Building Q is a new LEED Gold 222,000 square foot office building located on the SAS Institute Campus in Cary, North Carolina. The six-story building has a total of 671 staff offices; each floor contains 98 offices and 12 manager’s offices, along with collaboration, support space, and a Grab & Go cafe.

The design of Building Q provides a sustainable, light-filled, comfortable, and functional space for research and development staff to work and collaborate. The team followed the client’s standards for office and support space, and introduced several collaborative work areas into the building. Within these collaborative spaces, different furniture groupings are used to facilitate various types of group work, while also supporting both individual work zones for those that want to take a break from the office environment during the day, as well as monthly “all hands on deck” meetings. The overall design created a warm and inviting corporate space with a sophisticated, timeless palette energized by modern punches of color and texture.

As a result, the building program is arranged into three principal volumes: two office wings and a central core. Aligned to maximize exposure to northern and southern sunlight, the office wings are curtain wall-clad masses with transparent stair towers punctuating the southern side, and the central core provides a visual break from the curtain wall language, using planar elements broken by a combination of punched openings in the conference rooms and shaded expanses of glass in the collaboration areas. The office wings “plug into” this central mass and setting up the collaborative zones on each floor of the building.

The collaborative space in the central core presented an opportunity for design innovation. These areas have been designed to help the owner think differently about how they work, while overall, the building includes common spaces that are flexible enough to allow for future interior changes, allowing the owner to create their own space as needed.

Also located on this corporate campus is Building A, a 420,000 SF office building, which includes 1,000 offices, two auditoriums, six training rooms, 40 conference rooms, and dining for 750 people in an upscale workplace environment. A blend of private offices and large communal spaces for informal meetings or gathering provides options to support a variety of work flows. Amenities include break and lounge spaces on each floor, a green roof, an outdoor roof patio, and original artwork on every floor. The onsite dining options feature a bakery, market, full commercial kitchen supporting the salad bar and various food stations, a zone for cooking demonstrations, and an outdoor dining plaza.

The building integrates many strategies for sustainable design, including efficient building systems, bike facilities, local materials, connections to the campus PV field, and site design strategies for stormwater management and an inviting pedestrian experience. The building achieved LEED Gold certification.

 

RECOGNITIONS: LEED Gold