Giving Makers Quarter’s Block D a “Personality”

Porreca: “The building has a transparency, but also some interesting elements such as how we’re treating some sun-shading elements. This will give the building a different personality day to day.”

SAN DIEGO—Construction is beginning on Makers Quarter’s Block D project, a six-block work/live/play district in Downtown’s East Village, and BNIM principal and architect Matthew Porecca tells GlobeSt.com it will be an interactive prototype for the workplace of the future. The BNIM-designed project is a six-story collaborative office hub with retail and restaurant on the ground floor, inspired by the neighborhood’s maker spirit.

Makers Quarter is a project of development team L2HP (Lankford & Associates, HP Investors and Hensel Phelps). BNIM was one of the key design firms that created the master plan for Makers Quarter, which broke ground on its first phase in April 2016. Makers Quarter urban planner Stacey Pennington, principal of SLP Urban Planning, says of BNIM’s holistic approach, “By intertwining public realm and open space, they’ve helped us to create an environment that appeals competitively to prospective tenants and our ethos of future workplace.”