Bakersfield Convention & Visitors Bureau–Multiple Award Winner
The triangle of the public space is vibrant and dynamic. Placed at an angle over the rectangle, it is sheathed in a smooth and polished composite material. The triangle becomes transparent adjacent to the outdoor plaza through the introduction of monolithic glass wall planes.
Project Details
Project Summary
The Greater Bakersfield Convention & Visitors Bureau requires an office building that is both public and private. The site is located along Truxtun Avenue, adjacent to the Amtrak Station and near the Convention Center and Centennial Garden. As a non-profit organization, the CVB desires to make a big impact while maintaining a modest budget.
The idea of public and private became the form generator for the building. To define these, a rectangle is used for private office uses, and a triangle defines the public space. The two forms join each other near the center by overlapping, expressing further the separate but combined use of the building.
The private space is seen as quiet and efficient. The material choice is common to professional offices in the area: a stucco exterior with regularly spaced and sized windows. The rectangle is placed orthogonal to Truxtun Avenue to reinforce its use, and its height relates to the pedestrian street edge.
As the building progresses from east to west, from private to public, the exterior walls begin to modulate: window openings convert from regular and ordered to random, then to all glass, and ending with a form cantilevering over open space.
