The parking structure for the new Kilroy Oyster Point life science campus in San Francisco merges modular construction with seismic safety and style.
By Aaron Alhady
In the urban landscape of South San Francisco, the birthplace of biotechnology and the second-largest life science market in the country, a new landmark is taking shape — Kilroy Oyster Point (KOP). When complete, this 4-million-square-foot, 50-acre campus will serve as a hub for life science progress, innovation, and discovery.
First impressions are everything, and for Kilroy Oyster Point’s visitors and tenants, the 10-story, 665,000-square-foot parking structure, situated adjacent to three buildings within the KOP campus, will set the tone for how they experience the campus. Kilroy Realty Corp. — the project owner — left no stone unturned, from design and prefabrication to seismic resilience and community impact.
Prefabrication eliminates challenges
From day one, the location of KOP's 1,983-space parking structure challenged traditional construction methods. The structure is in an urban setting and adjacent to the ongoing construction of other KOP campus buildings.
Kilroy needed to ensure the structure would be resilient to seismic activity — a necessity in California — as well as aesthetically pleasing and constructed without causing unnecessary disruption or traffic. After exploring multiple options, the developer decided on prefabrication instead of traditional cast-in-place concrete.
"Prefabricating the concrete offsite minimized disruption and simplified communication on an already congested construction site with a limited laydown area," said Jonas Vass, the executive vice president of development at Kilroy. "Logistically, it made sense to consider prefabrication. Traditional cast-in-place and the logistics surrounding it wouldn't have worked well for this project. I don't think we could deliver the parking structure as efficiently as we did without prefabrication."
From previous roles, Vass was familiar with Clark Pacific, a Sacramento-based design-build manufacturer with more than 60 years of experience with prefabricated building systems. Clark Pacific served as the general contractor, manufacturer, and architect of record for the parking structure. Although Kilroy has prefabricated buildings in the past, this project was the company's first time using this method for a parking structure.
The lateral system for the parking structure is a special hybrid moment frame consisting of prefabricated moment columns that are 2 feet thick by 3 feet, 8 inches wide, and 101 feet tall, as well as moment beams that are 2 feet thick by 4 feet tall and 19 feet long. The remainder of the structure consisted of prefabricated double tee beams that are typically 24 inches deep and 61 feet long; rectangular beams that are 2 feet wide by 2.5 feet tall and 28 feet, 4 inches long; and gravity columns that are 2 feet thick by 3 feet, 8 inches wide, and 101 ft tall.
Early engagement is critical
Successfully leveraging prefabrication requires engagement and collaboration between the owner and design team from the onset of a project. For Kilroy, this process led to early decisions on design elements, which turned out to be advantageous. Vass and his team collaborated with designers, deciding on color, texture, and the overall aesthetics of the parking structure. Prefabrication gave Kilroy more options for enhancing the structure's visual appeal with finishes as compared to cast-in-place construction.
"Prefabrication gave us flexibility with the finishes that we wouldn't have had with traditional methods, making cast-in-place concrete the obvious choice for Class A, premium built buildings," Vass said. “With precast, we're getting to make a lot of decisions on color and texture."
The prefabricated precast is color-integrated and accentuated with a perforated metal screen that covers 60% to 70% of the structure. The screen was designed to accentuate the blue and gray tones of the nearby water. Its panels feature holes of varying sizes, giving the structure a resemblance to rolling waves. At night, the screen is backlit, transforming the structure into a shimmering jewel.
"The design and accurate installation of the metal screen were critical,” Vass said. “With the screen’s size and prominence, any mistakes in its design or construction would have derailed the project quickly. Despite this complexity, the screen came together seamlessly. It could very well be the most remarkable feature of the entire project," Vass said.
Kilroy also took extra care to optimize traffic flow in anticipation for when the project is fully occupied. Clark Pacific conducted timing studies and explored various layouts to determine the best placement of lanes and entry and exit points. The structure features vehicle entries on three levels and three sides, as well as reversible lanes with light-emitting-diode digital signage to guide traffic for quick entry and exit.
Self-righting system addresses seismic concerns
Building for seismic resiliency added another layer of complexity that Kilroy was able to address with a precast hybrid moment frame (PHMF), a self-righting lateral system that dissipates seismic energies. As part of a PHMF, energy-dissipating steel reinforcing bar yields while a post-tensioning cable restores the frame to its original position with no residual drifts. This feature ensures the structure's strength and resilience, even in seismic events. After a seismic event, the structure will right-size itself, limiting damage and, in most cases, enabling people to safely reoccupy the garage immediately.
"When it comes to resilience, there are a lot of things to consider on any project," Vass said. "In this case, and in addition to the structure itself, we had to think about everything that attaches to it, from the stairs to the elevator towers. All these considerations affect how the building performs after a seismic event. The precast hybrid moment frame is an investment in long-term planning for the KOP campus.”
The Kilroy Oyster Point parking structure was recently awarded the prestigious Platinum Verified Earthquake Rating from the U.S. Resiliency Council (USRC), a non-profit organization for implementing and disseminating rating systems that describe the performance of buildings during earthquakes and other natural hazard events. Platinum is the council's highest rating.
Used by public and private owners and communities, the USRC's performance rating system forms the basis of economic and financial incentives developed by lenders and insurers to reward high-performing buildings. Achieving a Platinum rating requires that a building meet strict performance safety, damage, and recovery thresholds. Platinum-rated buildings suffer negligible damage, with repair costs less than 5% of the building's replacement cost and facilitate functional recovery immediately or within a few days of a major seismic event.
Collaboration on a congested site
As construction began on the office buildings, the parking structure's 2-acre site was excavated, and its structural elements were precast under controlled conditions at Clark Pacific's Woodland plant outside Sacramento, California. Clark Pacific created a mock-up of the structure at its plant to help Vass and his team visualize how the finished structure would look.
"It was a very seamless and collaborative process,” Vass said. “We were able to visit the plant, inspect the structural elements, and provide input as it progressed. Avoiding the potential issues and on-site congestion that we would have had with cast-in-place allowed us to move the parking structure forward quickly and continue constructing three adjacent buildings on the campus without interruption."
Working alongside the construction of three campus buildings, with hundreds of workers and heavy equipment on-site, made coordination among various stakeholders crucial. "Throughout the process, our team, Clark Pacific, and the Oyster Point general contractor for the campus office buildings, Hathaway Dinwiddie, worked together to optimize plans and avoid clashes," Vass said. "One of our amenity buildings is connected to the parking structure through an expansion joint, so we had to collaborate to ensure the systems and parts came together as planned."
At any given moment, several cranes were simultaneously erecting three large biotech lab buildings on a segment of the 50-acre property to be served by the parking structure. By contrast, Clark Pacific's presence on the site was minimal, consisting of no more than a 10-member field erection crew.
Prefabricating the structural elements reduced the need for extensive on-site labor and enabled efficient delivery of components. The team was able to schedule truck shipments of precast elements on a just-in-time basis, eliminating the need for a large laydown area. The streamlined logistics translated to a shorter construction schedule, saving months compared to a cast-in-place structure.
Looking ahead
The Kilroy Oyster Point parking structure is in the final stages and nearing completion. As of press time in early December, the plan is to turn the parking structure over to the owner by the end of 2024.
"We're in the home stretch," Vass said. "Prefabrication allowed us to overcome complex construction challenges and create a parking structure that is resilient, stunning, and will serve our tenants and their guests for decades to come."
The Kilroy Oyster Point parking structure exemplifies modern engineering, construction, and architectural innovation. From prefabrication to seismic resilience, it is a blueprint for designing and constructing parking structures in dense urban environments.
Aaron Alhady is the general manager of the Design-Build Division Clark Pacific. He can be reached at aalhady@clarkpacific.com.
