999 Playa

Commercial + Class A Office

Architecture

165,280sf | 15,355sm

Tempe, Arizona

Transparency and weightlessness give presence to this six-story office building. An infill project sited in the Tempe Town Lake District adjacent to the freeway, it is a westbound gateway marker, composed in silver and blue tones with abundant glazing. At grade, tenant spaces activate the northern front with parking behind, under two floating ‘trays’ of structured parking; the main three-story volume of office shell appears to levitate above. With approximately 94,300 sf of rentable office, the building is characterized by raw materiality. Exposed concrete columns and post-tensioned slabs are exposed on the interior—allowing floor-to-floor glass and expansive views.

Burdened by a restrictive site, the building relies on extreme efficiency in form to maximize its rentable area. Born from passive thermal techniques, the duality of the transparent north façade and the more solid south mass is emphasized through the juxtaposition of visually weightless glass, and the dark navy mass behind. Horizontal datums provide a tiered effect of floating planes, hovering just above the Lake.