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MAY LEE
STATE
OFFICE
COMPLEX
Sacramento, CA
Client: California Department of General Services
May Lee State Office Complex is revitalizing and decarbonizing Sacramento’s River District. The new 5,000-person government building is the largest all-electric, zero carbon workplace campus in the U.S. A seasonally-vibrant landscape celebrates the collision of River and City, overlaying orthogonal urban grids with sinuous river vernacular. The campus features four mid-rise office buildings, a rich amenities program, and connects to public transit; May Lee is envisioned to spur the transformation of Sacramento’s River District from its industrial past to a vibrant mixed-used community.
CATALYTIC INFILL TO ACTIVATE DE-INDUSTRIALIZATION
The site was selected by the State of California to cultivate investment in an underutilized part of Sacramento, proximate to light rail. RBOC is viewed as an anchor revitalization effort, spurring future adaptive-use and construction projects. RELM’s landscape honors the city’s street grid while the Green Pathway connects RBOC’s three parcels to create a campus spine, the street network to the south, the light rail stop to the north, and ultimately towards the American River.
CONTOURING NATURE’S MOVEMENT
The open space network functions as an ecological corridor connecting the river’s habitat, fauna, and sheet flows to the vast open spaces of the rail yards to the south. All forms of life activate this north-south corridor: people, birds, pollinators, plant biomes. The complex looks to maximize biodiversity in a flood zone and treat stormwater onsite.
PROGRAMMING INFRASTRUCTURE
The ecological corridor created by RBOC’s landscape consists of interludes serving as programmable infrastructure: the Green Pathway, Transit Plaza, Town Square, Bannon Street Plaza, and performative greenscapes in the surface parking lot and perimeter streetscapes.
