The Pall Italia Building is located in an industrial area of Buccinasco, Italy, a municipality seven kilometers (4.3 mi.) southwest of Milan. The new Italian headquarters of the Pall Corporation—a U.S.-based global company specializing in the filtration, separation, and purification of fluids for the medical and industrial fields—consists of 3,463 square meters (37,275 sq. ft.) of office space and 3,513 square meters (37,814 sq. ft.) of research laboratories on an 8.8-hectare (21.8-acre) site. One of Italy’s first green buildings, the Pall Italia Building uses a range of sustainable technologies to achieve zero on-site carbon emissions, including thermal resistant façades, innovative daylighting techniques, and renewable energy.
The refurbishment of Government Offices Great George Street (GOGGS) is at once a flagship case study of a successful private finance initiative (PFI)—a U.K. program put into effect to transfer the development risks for government projects from the public to the private sector—and also a high-quality renovation project that treats government property and employees with the same care as a developer would treat private sector owners or tenants.
Located in San Francisco’s South of Market (SOMA) neighborhood, Foundry Square offers a compelling example of a how a multiblock, mixed-use urban campus can go a long way toward enhancing urban vitality. One of the first developments to transform the urban fabric of the SOMA neighborhood, Foundry Square has been a game changer. It currently consists of four corner parcels, three structures (with a fourth in preconstruction planning), and a dynamic open space at the intersection of First Street and Howard Street. Upon completion, Foundry Square will include 1.6 million square feet (111,500 m2) of office and retail space spread across four mid-rise buildings. The thoughtful design of Foundry Square, from the pioneering incorporation of sustainable technologies to the large open space that activates the street, is what sets it apart from so many other mixed-use developments and makes it a vital contributor to SOMA’s revitalization.
Commissioned by its namesake corporation in 1932, the 24,121-square-meter (259,636-sf) Unilever House occupies a prominent site on the north bank of the Thames River. The redevelopment of the Grade II–listed office building achieves a balance between retaining the building’s historic façade and providing an open-air, flexible work space necessary for the global corporation’s day-to-day operations. Sustainable practices permeated all phases of the Unilever House rehabilitation, culminating in its Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) “Excellent” rating and an overall 25 percent carbon emission reduction.
Located on what was one of the last remaining sites in the La Défense high-rise business district just west of Paris, Tour CBX (CBX Tower) projects an iconic image while providing a high-quality working environment and making efficient use of a site constrained by its small size and by view-corridor restrictions. The 44,000-square-meter (473,612 sf) tower’s footprint occupies half of the site’s 2,400 square meters (25,833 sf). An innovative podium and elliptical floor-plate design provide up to 1,500 square meters (16,146 sf) of space on each of the 34 upper floors.
