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Liquid Sugar
Liquid Sugar
Emeryville, CA, United States
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Other Projects by Groundworks Office
Liquid Sugar
Emeryville, CA, United States
Firm
Type
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2019
SIZE
25,000 sqft - 100,000 sqft
BUDGET
$500K - 1M
Nestled along the Emeryville Greenway, Liquid Sugar is a 55-unit, six-building, modern multi-family residential complex. Redeveloped in 2002, the site had been home to an industrial factory that turned granulated sugar into a colorless liquid used in food production. The architecture won many design awards including the “Residential Project of the Year” a Pacific Coast Builders Conference. Unfortunately, or ironically, the landscape was never developed, yielding a contrast to the architecture in the form of an eyesore.
Groundworks Office designed a series of courtyards that would provide a visual respite for the residents. Our motivation for the project started with understanding the former industrial process that took place on site. What we learned moved us towards developing a series of mounds and diaphanous walls that interrupt the linear space. The contaminated soil capped three feet below grade forced us to think creatively about how to add trees to the site. The patterning that we prescribed to the weathering steel walls via a waterjet process was a series of multifarious, perforated openings, similar to the panels that the granulations were pressed through with immense heat to create liquid sugar. In the evening hours, the walls take on an ephemeral character, twinkling or sparking much like sugar in the sun.
Groundworks Office designed a series of courtyards that would provide a visual respite for the residents. Our motivation for the project started with understanding the former industrial process that took place on site. What we learned moved us towards developing a series of mounds and diaphanous walls that interrupt the linear space. The contaminated soil capped three feet below grade forced us to think creatively about how to add trees to the site. The patterning that we prescribed to the weathering steel walls via a waterjet process was a series of multifarious, perforated openings, similar to the panels that the granulations were pressed through with immense heat to create liquid sugar. In the evening hours, the walls take on an ephemeral character, twinkling or sparking much like sugar in the sun.
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