Moscone West designed by Gensler

Moscone West, designed by Gensler, integrates efficient and flexible architecture with striking design details, while improving the vitality of its surrounding urban fabric.

Moscone West, designed by Gensler Architecture, Design and Planning Worldwide, in a joint venture with Michael Willis Architects and Kwan Henmi Architecture, integrates efficient and flexible architecture with striking design details, while improving the vitality of its surrounding urban fabric.

Located across the street from the existing Moscone Convention Center at Fourth and Howard Streets, this 775,000-square foot building will increase the capacity of Moscone Center by 45% and provide three stories of meeting space for mid-sized groups.

The City and County of San Francisco is the Developer/Owner of the project; Gensler is the Design Architect of the building and interiors and is Joint Venture Manager; Michael Willis Architects is the Core and Shell Architect of Record; Kwan Henmi Architecture is the Interior Architect of Record; and Hunt Construction Group is the General Contractor.

Moscone West will officially debut with its first convention in August 2003.

Architecture For Both the Visitor and the City.

"The Yerba Buena Center area has evolved dramatically since the Moscone Center first opened in 1981," said Kevin Hart, Design Director and Vice President in Gensler's San Francisco office.

"After many years of redevelopment by the City, investment by private developers, and commitment by cultural institutions, it is now a vibrant downtown district".

"We wanted Moscone West not only to accommodate the city's increased convention needs, but also to be an engaging civic building that enhances the urban neighborhood surrounding it.

While most convention centers are closed, windowless boxes, Moscone West employs a transparent faandAacute;ade to integrate the building and its functions with its surroundings.

Rising the height of the building's three stories and fronting the busy intersection of Fourth and Howard Streets, this curved curtainwall of clear glass provides visitors with city views, and shows the activity inside the building to people who walk or drive past it.

For those both inside and outside the building, the lobby is enlivened by interior features, such as the curtainwall's sculptural steel support structure and a giant scissor of escalators that carry visitors to the upper levels.

A feature wall of warm-toned quartzite extends the length of the prefunction spaces on all three floors.

The new building is designed to be in scale with its neighboring structures.

On the south faandAacute;ade facing Howard Street, four glass-walled bay windows project from the building over the sidewalk, in a reinterpretation of the city's architectural vernacular.

On Fourth Street, the curtainwall steps back at the height of the adjacent building, creating an outdoor terrace above the entrance.

At the intersection of Fourth and Howard Streets, the curtainwall curves to focus towards the southeast, linking visually with the rest of the Moscone Center and helping to orient visitors going to and from the main Moscone facility.

At the ground floor, several small retail spaces along Howard Street extend the existing commercial pattern and heighten activity along the sidewalk.

Meeting Center Design Innovations.

Moscone West's design accommodates the increased pedestrian circulation resulting from meetings with generous sidewalks along Fourth and Howard Streets.

The building's four levels make efficient use of the compact site, and street traffic is reduced by providing basement space for loading and storage.

Nine below-grade loading docks enable trucks to unload and load crates of exhibit materials.

Storage space for the crates within the building eliminates the need for trucks to make two additional circuits (to remove and then deposit empty crates)-thereby reducing truck traffic by half.

Natural light, which is used abundantly in the Center, not only floods the prefunction space but also can be brought directly into the exhibit area-a space typically characterized by artificial light and a synthetic environment.

The floor-to-ceiling bay windows bring daylight into areas that can be configured either as breakout rooms or extensions of the adjacent exhibit area.

Seismic Design Innovations.

As required by the City of San Francisco, the building is designed to be used as a safe public shelter immediately following a major earthquake.

An inventive structural solution provides Moscone West with unusually high earthquake resistance at a significant reduction in cost.

Given the building's 37-foot floor-to-floor heights, use of a conventional moment frame system would have required very heavy columns to reduce the lateral sway to 1%.

The project's structural engineer, San Francisco firm Structural Design Engineers, invented a lateral system that employs two girders at each floor, coupled with vertical links that absorb the lateral energy in an earthquake.

This Coupled Girder Moment Resisting Frame (CGMRF) has the added benefit of greater earthquake energy absorption than a conventional moment frame system, while costing approximately $2 million less to construct.

As part of the lateral resisting system, energy-absorbing friction dampers were also used, saving an additional $1.5 million over fluid viscous dampers.

Energy Efficiency and Sustainability.

Moscone West's design, construction process, and ongoing maintenance include energy-conscious measures.

High-performance window glass admits daylight without heat, reducing both lighting needs and cooling loads.

The facility makes use of San Francisco's moderate climate to reduce the building's energy demands and to lower the cost of operation by using outside air for cooling during much of the year.

Electrical systems are centrally monitored and controlled to enable operators to turn off lights when they are not needed.

During construction, 80% of the removed materials were recycled, and an onsite waste management and recycling program expects to recover 65% of recyclable material generated by the trade shows and exhibitions.

Public Art.

Two art works, commissioned by The San Francisco Arts Commission, were integrated with the building design as part of the City's Public Art program.

"Tree" is a redwood sculpture by Hilda Shum, Wang Po Shu, and David Gordon that stands within the armature of the lobby's grand staircase, bringing an element of nature into this busy urban environment.

"Facsimile," by the New York artists Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, is a giant graphic display screen that moves slowly along the exterior facade facing Fourth and Howard Streets, displaying images from within the building and programmed video by the artists.

Both installations are visible from within the prefunction space and from the sidewalk.

Meeting Center Design Features.

The first floor houses a 95,000-sf exhibition hall designed with a 90-foot long span structure, providing maximum flexibility for exhibitors.

The second and third floor exhibition areas feature moveable partitions that enable the hall to be arranged in a variety of meeting room configurations.

Break-out rooms adjacent to the bay windows allow controlled daylight to penetrate the interior.

The third level is also designed for a ballroom configuration with a 200-foot-wide unobstructed, column-free space accommodating 7,000 people.

Overall, the entire facility provides 300,000 square feet of rentable exhibition space and has a capacity of 18,000 people.

Electrically-operated graphic banners descending from the ceilings enable signage to easily change with the various meeting room configurations.

Gensler was also the designer of the Moscone Center's first expansion, Moscone North, completed in 1992.

Totaling 633,000 square feet, the expansion project was a massive undertaking for the City and includes 507,000 square feet of underground exhibition halls and above-ground meeting room facilities.

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