Burlingame Point

Overview

Opportunity

Solution

Impact

Team

Burlingame Point prioritizes future use, resiliency, public access, and high-quality design to establish a scalable example of what a waterfront campus can be.

Location

Burlingame, California

Client

Kylli

Expertise

[FPO] Architecture Office Developers [FPO] Cities [FPO] Urban Design Technology Climate Action & Sustainability

Opportunity

A developer’s first Bay Area project needed to be a mark of excellence that balanced innovation, sustainability, and community to attract a world class tenant.

Like other Bay Area waterfront developments, Burlingame Point had to balance market demands for a next-generation workplace with the challenges of building on a dynamic shoreline. The project began with a vision to create an exceptional commercial campus experience occupying a rare stretch of the San Francisco Bay. It demanded a design that would anticipate future needs with flexibility to support technology tenants and life-science users. At the same time, it needed to address rising sea levels with strategies that protect both investment and community.

Why This Matters

01
Restoring Bayfront Access
The project needed to meaningfully expand public access to the waterfront and return a long-isolated edge of Burlingame to community use.
02
Market Signal
The campus had to stand out in a competitive market and attract world-class tenants through architecture, amenities, and a distinctive identity rooted in place.
03
Regional Resilience
Because the site sits at the Bay's edge, Burlingame Point needed to proactively address climate concerns and offer a new model for resilient waterfront development.

FPO Quote

Solution

The project was organized around a car-free promenade, using light, water, wind, and ecology to reimagine the traditional office campus experience.

The landscape-driven corridor places people and the environment at the center of the experience, encouraging social interaction while connecting to the redeveloped Bay Trail and shoreline. The team crafted a bespoke architectural character inspired by the San Francisco Bay to instill a distinct sense of place and create an unmistakable identity for the project. Gensler rebuilt the shoreline and elevated the ground plane, implementing a resilient strategy to mitigate environmental risks and protect the asset for the long term. This approach sets a new precedent for sustainable, design-forward waterfront development.

The design process translated Bay conditions into architecture, starting with a promenade framework and refining form, façade, and shoreline systems together.

Community resilience and the human experience anchored the process. Proactively approaching sea level rise vulnerabilities, the project was developed atop 15-foot raised podium. The central car-free landscape connects people to one another, local ecology, and the bay, creating a shared public realm. This concept extended throughout the project: office terraces face the promenade, the amenity building frames bay views, and façade studies used transparency, opacity, and rippled surfaces to reflect water’s light. The parking structure was designed as infrastructure focused on movement, ventilation, and future adaptability.

Burlingame Point Massing

Four office buildings shaped to reduce leeward wind turbulence over open space and water.

Impact

More than a corporate campus, Burlingame Point stands as a benchmark for environmentally responsive, user-driven design that contributes to the long-term vitality of the region.

Blending high-performance design, shoreline enhancements, and meaningful public access, the project drew a top-tier tech tenant mid-construction and is a revitalized amenity for the community.

What Changed Because of This

01
Tenant Demand
The design's market impact was immediate: Meta leased the entire campus mid-construction, validating the project's identity, flexibility, and appeal to a world-class tenant.
02
Enhanced Public Access
Shoreline improvements, the Bay Trail connection, benches, public art, and educational signage turned a former drive-in edge into an active waterfront destination, beloved for activities like windsurfing and cycling.
03
A Resilient Bayfront
Raised shorelines, coastal plantings, rainwater-processing landscapes, and elevated ground planes positioned the campus as a visible precedent for bayfront resilience.

Recognition

01

City of Burlingame

Burlingame Point was a recipient of The City of Burlingame’s Green Business Award in 2023, Honored for “exemplary waste and energy initiatives.”

02

AIA San Francisco

The Amenity Center at Burlingame Point received an honor award in the Architecture category of AIA San Francisco’s 2025 Design Awards.

03

San Francisco Business Times

Following Meta’s mid-construction lease, Burlingame Point Earned a San Francisco Business TiMes Real Estate Deals of the Year Award in 2019.

Team

Project Leadership

Ben Tranel

Ben is an architect focused on the transformational power of design, specifically how the built environment communicates values and shapes human experiences. As Managing Director of Gensler's San Francisco office, he enjoys complex design challenges and guiding teams to discover creative solutions.

Hao Ko

Hao is Gensler's Global Director of Design and a Regional Design Principal, focusing on building a dynamic practice through an open and collaborative culture. An inquisitive architect by nature, he is passionate about transforming experiences through deep research, the craft of technical excellence, and rigorous intellectual thought, all while striving to design beautiful places that change people's lives for the better.

Ellie Wang

Ellie is a Project Director for the office building and mixed-use projects studio in Gensler’s San Francisco office and the Mixed-Use & Retail Centers Leader for the Northwest region.

[FPO] Bob Perry

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FAQ

01

Where is this project located?

Burlingame Point is located on the Burlingame waterfront in the San Francisco Bay Area’s Peninsula region.

02

Who designed this project?

Gensler designed the campus.

03

What is included in the project?

The development is built atop a 15-foot podium and includes four office/R&D buildings, a two-story amenity building, underground parking, a separate six-level parking structure, plazas, courtyards, and shoreline improvements.

04

How does the project benefit the city?

It improves public access to the waterfront through shoreline landscape, a pedestrian trail, Bay Trail connections, community-serving retail, and an activated public realm.

05

How does the design respond to the site?

The campus uses a car-free promenade, bay-oriented terraces, light-and-water-inspired façades, wind-informed forms, and resilient shoreline strategies to connect people to the waterfront.

06

When was Burlingame Point completed?

2021.

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Related Expertise

Architecture Office Developers Cities Urban Design Technology Climate Action & Sustainability

Burlingame Point prioritizes future use, resiliency, public access, and high-quality design to establish a scalable example of what a waterfront campus can be.

A developer’s first Bay Area project needed to be a mark of excellence that balanced innovation, sustainability, and community to attract a world class tenant.

Why This Matters

The project was organized around a car-free promenade, using light, water, wind, and ecology to reimagine the traditional office campus experience.

The design process translated Bay conditions into architecture, starting with a promenade framework and refining form, façade, and shoreline systems together.

More than a corporate campus, Burlingame Point stands as a benchmark for environmentally responsive, user-driven design that contributes to the long-term vitality of the region.

What Changed Because of This