10th and O Street State Office Building

Sacramento, California

4 LEED NC Platinum

SIZE

478,000 sq. ft. / 44,410 sq. m.

COST

$470 Million

COMPLETION DATE

2021 SERVICES

Architecture, Health + Well-Being, Interiors, Landscape Architecture, Planning + Urban Design, Sustainable Design

Democracy is on display at the new state office building in downtown Sacramento’s historic government center. The 10-story building is home to California legislative and executive elected officials, including the governor and staff who have temporarily relocated here until the new Capitol Annex project is completed.

As a place for public assembly, this is the most important new civic building constructed by the State of California in Sacramento in the past four decades. The design contributes to California’s progressive image while complementing the nearby neoclassical State Capitol structure.

HOK’s design divides the office building’s front from north to south. This reimagines the conventional arrangement of a solid central core in an office building, which typically includes interior elements such as staircases, elevators and essential operational spaces.

Double-height, daylit great rooms in the center of each floor function as the building’s heart. Visitors can wait for meetings in these spaces, while staff find opportunities for team or solitary work. Open, interconnecting stairs between floors encourage interaction.

The classical, symmetrical window configurations are reminiscent of California’s traditional civic architecture and the nearby State Capitol building. At the same time, the building has a highperformance, optimized facade with light shelves and vertical fins. The facade’s orientations adjust to changing climatic conditions, balancing solar gain, daylight and views.

A two-story portico with expressive structural columns invites people into the main lobby. The translucent glass facade at the base provides views into committee chambers clad in native California wood.

Constituents can interact with one another and participate in their government in public spaces on the first two floors.

As an all-electric, net-zero energy and net-zero carbon emissions facility, the building is leading California toward a net-zero future and has achieved LEED-NC Platinum certification. A landmark arrangement with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District for off-site renewable power generation via a dedicated photovoltaic array helps the building achieve net-zero energy. It features 100% LED lighting, individual task lights and EV charging stations. A centralized building management system allows for real-time building performance analysis and mechanical system fine-tuning.

Going beyond LEED v4 requirements, the team selected healthy materials with high recycled content. More than 50 interior products have Health Product Declarations (HPDs), 150 have Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), 75 have material ingredient reporting and several other low-emitting certified products are included in the building. All the interior wood is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

TV monitors in the ground-floor lobby show real-time energy use and renewable energy output performance data about the building. An immersive display highlights the building’s sustainability strategies.

This building accommodates up to 2,200 legislative and executive staff in a highly flexible, collaborative office space.

The progressive design-build team included HOK’s San Francisco studio, which led the design and architecture team, with Dreyfuss + Blackford as associate architects and Hensel Phelps as general contractor. Gilbane was the construction manager.