Uber R&D Center

Annual Sponsors

WJE

Spectra Company

Architectural Resources Group & ARG Conservation

Page & Turnbull

California Office of Historic Preservation

CAW Architects, Inc.

Environmental Science Associates

Evergreene

Historic Resources Group

IS Architecture

Kelly Sutherlin McLeod Architecture, Inc.

Napa Design Partners

Rainbow Waterproofing & Restoration

Simpson Gumpertz & Heger

Tef Design

TreanorHL

ZFA Structural Engineers

To learn about CPF’s sponsorship opportunities, click here or email Andrew Shaffer.

Uber Advanced Technologies Group R&D Center

The Uber Advanced Technologies Group R&D Center is the winner of a 2018 Preservation Design Award. Award recipients are selected by a jury of top professionals in the fields of architecture, engineering, planning, and history, as well as renowned architecture critics and journalists.

The Award will be presented on Friday, October 19, 2018 at a gala dinner and awards ceremony at Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. Tickets and sponsorship options are available at californiapreservation.org/awards.

About this project

This project is noteworthy for not only the contrast but also the similarity of the historical and new uses of Buildings 113, 114, 115, and 116 at what was until a few decades ago, a complex that was home to Bethlehem Shipbuilding – one of the largest ship yards on the west coast. Today Pier 70, of which this project is a significant part, is regarded as the best preserved 19th century industrial complex west of the Mississippi.

The project encompasses four structures of “20th Street Historic Buildings at Pier 70” which were originally constructed at various times between 1885 and 1937. The unromantically named “Buildings 113, 114, 115, 116” not only originated in different decades, but also are of widely varying construction types and materials, including un-reinforced masonry, reinforced concrete, and wood or steel trusses. The challenges in accommodating a state-of-the-art technology company into a physically deteriorating and seismically sub-standard historic building, were both technical and architectural. Fortunately, the old buildings were blessed with great architectural “bones”, magnificent potential natural light from skylights and windows, plus awesome “craneways” in dramatic volumes that allowed the insertion of mezzanines, bridges and stairs. In addition to the physical elements of architecture, the use of architectural lighting to shape the spaces, define functions and highlight iconic industrial artifacts (such as yellow cranes), was crucial to the outcome.

Photos © Billy Hustace