Located in Downtown Burlingame, 250 California Drive is a new four-story, 50,000-square-foot commercial building with tenant parking below grade, an office/lobby and retail space on the ground floor, and three stories of office space above. The brick exterior and floor-to-ceiling windows blend with the surrounding industrial area and offer panoramic views of the city.
The basement is approximately 25 feet deep and houses a three-story mechanized parking system designed to accommodate 98 cars. To overcome the buoyancy forces from the 25-foot-deep basement, the foundation was designed as a concrete mat slab and thickened as needed to avoid using uplift anchors.
The building is constructed with structural steel framing, concrete over metal decking floors, and metal stud partitions. The lateral system is steel moment frames in both orthogonal directions, with columns continuous down to the foundation to avoid large transfer beams. The fourth floor includes large operable exterior windows that open the interior space to the terraces.
MBH Architects worked with the Burlingame Historical Society to integrate a rare 1917 advertising mural into a courtyard near the building’s main entrance.