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Golden Gate University

February 9, 2013 By
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San Francisco, CA
2011 – present

Challenge

In the late 1990′s, Golden Gate University began the process of establishing a multi-year institutional master plan. Having completed the first phases, MKThink was brought on in 2011 to realign the master planning effort to the university’s current needs and goals. The analysis included an investigation of potential program and space deficiencies, opportunities, and infrastructure concerns.

Approach

MKThink began with an extensive data collection of facility, user, and room scheduling information. This dataset served as the baseline for a rigorous facility and programmatic needs analysis. Additional data was gathered by conducting on-site investigations, running several university-wide surveys, and holding weekly discussions with a selected group of staff and faculty. With a detailed understanding of the existing conditions of Golden Gate University, both building and program inefficiencies and opportunities emerged. In particular, MKThink discovered:

- There was a sizeable surplus of classroom space with respect to the scheduling and enrollment data.
- Students lacked sufficient informal and group study areas.
- Book storage in the University Library took up valuable space that could be utilized as study areas.
- Office space was inefficiently organized, and broken into inflexible departmental silos.
- There was a strong desire to create a space for adjunct faculty.
- The university lacked a central gathering space or hub for students that could strengthen campus identity.

Solution

Based on these findings, MKThink developed strategies that focused on each particular need. The classroom inventory was adjusted and rightsized according to the course scheduling, enrollment data, and changing educational pedagogies. Conceptual programs which detailed adjacencies for faculty and staff were developed, and office space standards were updated. More study spaces for students were created, as well as meeting rooms for staff and faculty. A central quad and student hub was designed within the existing building to promote school identity, and a new entrance into the university’s main building was introduced in order to strengthen campus connectivity.

For the university, two proposed plans were developed: an optimized plan, and an applied one. The first focused on program alone, in terms of needs, goals, and ideal adjacencies. Unrestricted by building constraints, this program served as an ideal configuration of Golden Gate University, and would prove extremely valuable if the university were to relocate in the future. The applied plan was a refined version of the first, a best-fit scenario contained within the existing facilities envelope that acknowledges the request to keep costs at a minimum.

MKThink has been asked to implement the applied plan, and construction of the first phase is scheduled to begin the summer of 2013.

Filed Under: Featured Work, Learning, Projects, Workplace

Jim Russell Racing Drivers School

April 3, 2012 By

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“Pole Position”

Infineon Raceway

Sonoma, CA

2007

Challenge

Infineon Raceway is a stark departure from the otherwise calm serenity of Sonoma’s rolling landscape. Here it’s about speed, racing and being loud. It’s about metal and machine. Testosterone and technology. An odd combination of adrenaline and octane where humans and their machines push each other to the limit and sometimes past it. Extending the excitement of the track to the classroom and doing so in a cost effective manner were the key drivers for this project’s design and approach.

Approach

The aesthetic and sensory attributes of the design embody a not-so-lightly veiled reference to racing and high performance driving: metal, glass, motion, curves and color. Oh, it’s environmentally friendly too.

Results

The new Jim Russell Racing Drivers School is comprised of a learning and demonstration environment, media center, café, and lounge overlooking the track at Turn 1 of this storied raceway. The building solution successfully met the project goals – to create an affordable, high-performance teaching facility to support and expand the Jim Russell Racing Drivers School and its driving skills programs.

Filed Under: Featured Work, Projects, Workplace

Quadrus Corporate Campus

September 2, 2011 By

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“Artful Interiors”


Menlo Park, CA

2005 [ Core & Shell ]

2006 [ Tenant Spaces ]

Challenge

How do you boost tenant occupancy and lease rates in a highly competitive market? Although Sand Hill Road is recognized as one of the most prestigious venture capital addresses in the nation, our client was finding it difficult to attract mid-floor tenants in this three-story building. The problem stemmed from the building’s original design as a single tenant building while the current market demanded a multi-tenant approach.

Approach & Solution

MKThink envisioned a opportunities to re-structure the layout of the building that would position mid-floor tenants to have equal presence within the building as upper or lower floor tenants. The key was to create a new lower lobby linked by a staircase “spine” ascending through the building’s three levels to the upper lobby. This wide and open circulation pathway enhanced tenant interaction, promoted visibility and successfully captured underperforming space into a prestigious address within the building. Natural rock outcroppings are incorporated into the daylight-filled interior which also serves as a gallery to house a portion of the renowned Anderson Collection, considered one of the leading private art collections in the nation. The building now leverages its full potential with eight tenants willing to pay top dollar for their space.

Filed Under: Featured Work, Projects, Workplace

Project Frog

September 2, 2011 By

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MKThink founded and launched Project Frog in 2006, now a successful green tech company that has reinvented pre-engineered buildings to be smart, healthy, green and affordable.   The initiative that led us to create this company arose from the painful observation that schoolyards have become trailer parks for the most part and we just couldn’t accept the notion that portables had to be so unhealthy, so un-green and so dreary.   Project Frog has now deployed and implemented numerous projects, including:  

  • Jim Russell Racing School at Infineon Raceway
  • Child Development Center at CCSF
  • Crissy Field Center in the Presidio
  • Watkinson Center for Science and Global Studies
  • Jacoby Creek Charter School
  • Vaughn Next Century Learning Center
     

Vaughn Next Century Learning Center

Earning the name, “The Little School That Could”, Vaughn Next Century Learning Center is truly a model for school reform locally, nationally and globally. Raising academic achievement through programs such as accelerated English learning and school-wide literacy, Vaughn vastly improves the future prospects of students from highly disadvantaged backgrounds. The charter school continues to stay ahead of the curve with immediate plans to open two state-of-the-art Frog classrooms to enhance their new sustainability program. The unique curriculum will focus on lessons of sustainable practices using the FROG buildings as a 3,000 sf teaching tool. The students will be aptly prepared for a future in California green jobs.  

Jacoby Creek Charter School

The Jacoby Creek Charter School District was awarded a grant from the State of California to replace portable trailers on their 6-acre campus. With the goal of occupancy by the start of school in fall 2009, the school leadership began searching for affordable and sustainable options to replace existing trailers and expand the overall size of the school. They quickly found conventional methods would not work for them – traditional construction in this isolated community in rural Northern California would have taken too long and been cost prohibitive. Project Frog offered the school a low-cost alternative with abundant eco-friendly features. In addition, Project Frog’s quick deployment combined with the existing DSA pre-check certification ensured the tight timeline would be met.  

Crissy Field Center

San Francisco has a new icon thanks to the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and the National Park Service. Project FROG’s latest smart building is located on the beautiful San Francisco waterfront at Crissy Field’s East Beach. The new interim home for Crissy Field Center demonstrates model practices in sustainability which further advances their environmental education programs for local youth. With LEED Gold certification underway, the 7,436 sf state-of-the-art facility will be one of the most technologically-advanced, energy-efficient buildings in existence and will adhere to the most stringent green certification standards. The Center features high-performance classrooms, a science lab, an art room, administrative space as well as a cafe.  

Watkinson School – Center for Science and Global Studies

Watkinson School, the only independent school in Hartford, Connecticut now has three, interconnected, energy neutral classrooms to support the advanced curriculum – specifically the development of their exciting Science and Global Studies Program. Project FROG executed a 3,812 sf fast-track project to meet the school’s programming needs and budget while providing a healthy, sustainable, and productive energy neutral environment for students and staff alike. The result is a state-of-the-art, sustainable learning complex that excites young people about science, teaches kids how to be global citizens and stewards, and reflects the creative spirit of Watkinson as a whole. The academic program for the new Center focuses around environmental studies, global studies, middle school sciences and the nexus of where those disciplines interact: ethical action. To support these varied curricula, the classrooms are flexible to accommodate lecture, seminar and lab-style instruction, and are ‘wet’ and durable to allow for hands-on experimentation, have wireless capability, and are healthy, living ecosystems capable of demonstrating superior energy performance, environmental responsibility and stewardship. Furthermore, the classrooms have a transparent relationship to the natural environment and directly relate to the outdoor teaching lab adjacent to the complex. The classrooms are knit together by a common entry lobby that houses a collaboration “living room” as well as a thought provoking exhibit area. Eco-friendly features of the new science pavilion include solar power, no or low VOC-emitting interiors, high-recycled content building materials, and very energy efficient systems.  

Filed Under: Community, Featured Work, Learning, Projects, Workplace

Mozilla Corporate Offices

September 2, 2011 By

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An “independently spirited, fiercely unconventional” client deserves a work environment that matches this corporate ethos. So that’s exactly what we did.

Multiple Locations

2009 – Mountain View, CA  

2011 – San Francisco, CA

Challenge

How do you transform generic office space into a creative, collaborative work environment that celebrates Mozilla’s unique culture, attracts and retains key talent and enhances the exchange of ideas.  

Approach

Understand your client.  Mozilla has emerged as a major player in web browser space with Firefox through an open source approach to software development.  Mozilla has attracted a nimble, creative and loyal workforce that includes a very large global volunteer component through a culture of transparency and respect.  Bringing all of this talent together in a physical space requires accommodating multiple modalities of working styles and lots of collaboration space for resident staff as well as drop-in partners and volunteers.  

Solution

MKThink developed an open, collaborative workplace with a focus on fun, flexible, functional furniture solutions to support the desired spontaneity and elasticity of their space with the culture of transparency that they fiercely defend and has built their brand.   There are no private offices.  Period.  The environment was designed to support incubating new partnerships and new ideas through a variety of collaborative strategies – team rooms, co-work space, event areas and multiple mini cafes dispersed through the work environment to encourage idea sharing.

Filed Under: Featured Work, Projects, Workplace