Housing Project Builds in Co-Working Space

DUBLIN, CA—Adding a twist to the usual residential development, The Boulevard includes a Rec Center with a good number of resident amenities. The center consists of approximately 14,500 square feet and includes co-working spaces, café, web conference room, demonstration kitchen, resort pool, package lockers and other design concepts. The facility underway at Sterling Street and Nugget Way is intended as a social hub for not only the development but the surrounding community.

The Boulevard master plan includes 1,750 single- and multifamily homes. In the second of a two-part exclusive, Josh Roden, Brookfield Residential division president, discusses the co-working spaces in the Rec Center, café/kitchen and sustainability features of the project.

GlobeSt.com: What are some of the features of co-working spaces?

Roden: The Loft, which is the Rec Center’s unique co-working zone, overlooks the living room and café. It accommodates up to 10 people and is adjacent to the meeting room that can be closed and reserved for events. It provides a third place beyond the home or office for those with alternative work patterns. This amenity is relatively unique among master-planned communities. It wouldn’t work for every community in every city, but is a perfect fit for Boulevard with its proximity to BART and connectivity to the entire Bay Area. It provides the opportunity for people to pass on the commute and work from home without actually being at home. The many Boulevard residents who work in the tech and creative industries will naturally gravitate to The Loft.

People enjoy working in an environment where they are not alone and have the ability to share their ideas and challenges. The adjacent conference room has full data and power capabilities, including interactive display screen for web-conferencing. Next to The Loft is a secured locker area for package deliveries similar to the Amazon lockers, but open to all delivery servicers.

GlobeSt.com: How do the café and kitchen serve the community?

Roden: Group 4, our design team, worked with restaurant consultants to craft a flexible space that can evolve for different food and beverage uses. The design includes plumbing and power to support everything from a coffee house to a juice bar to actual pop-up venue for local restaurants. We see this evolving in whatever ways the community desires as it grows and matures.

The demonstration kitchen is part of the community pavilion that also includes a large community room. This accommodates multiple cooking and catering needs–everything from wine tastings to parties in conjunction with the adjacent club room. There is also an outdoor kitchen that can be accessed from a sliding glass wall. In fact, there are multiple spaces can be reserved by residents for private uses. These include two fitness rooms, the living room on the first floor which can be sequestered and includes an outdoor room, the conference room, and various outdoor rooms, including the pool pavilion, pool lawn and two barbecue areas. The conference room and upper-level fitness rooms have an outdoor deck that can also be reserved.

GlobeSt.com: Why is sustainability important to the design?

Roden: Today’s homebuyers, especially in the Bay Area, are very knowledgeable about the environment. Just as they want their homes to save energy and be eco-friendly, they expect the same from community amenities. The Rec Center is a high-performance facility. Generously sized windows, open floorplans and volume spaces allow for energy-saving daylighting throughout much of the complex. The three pavilions’ roofs are sloped for optimal efficiency and shade. All the roofs are photovoltaic-ready. And with three separate pavilions, individual spaces can be shut down into sleep mode when not in use.