Pacific Center

Overview

Opportunity

Solution

Impact

Team

Pacific Center transforms a life sciences campus into a connected, experience-driven destination, pairing high-performance labs with amenities, landscape, and community.

Location

San Diego, California

Client

Sterling Bay

Expertise

Sciences Brand Design [FPO] Climate Action [FPO] Sustainability Strategy Office Developers Cities & Urban Design Climate Action & Sustainability Mixed Use & Retail Centers

Opportunity

In a competitive life sciences market, Pacific Center had an opportunity to rethink the everyday experience, from the first arrival to the spaces where tenants gather, work, and recharge.

Pacific Center needed to deliver high-performing lab space while distinguishing itself in a crowded market. For the design team, that meant looking beyond the technical requirements of life sciences to consider how people experience the campus throughout the day. Welcoming, hospitality-forward lobbies, a strong amenity offering, and a central gathering place became important pieces of a more human-centered tenant experience.

Why This Matters

01
Rethinking Life Sciences
Pacific Center had an opportunity to move beyond the utilitarian expectations of lab development, creating a more welcoming, hospitality-forward experience for tenants and visitors.
02
Driven by Experience
In a crowded San Diego life sciences market, the campus needed to give prospective tenants a reason to choose Pacific Center beyond the performance of its lab space.
03
Creating a Connected District
Sorrento Mesa's research ecosystem presented an opportunity to create a shared destination where people could gather, connect, and contribute to a more human-centered neighborhood.

FPO Quote

Solution

The design brings a hospitality mindset to the life sciences campus experience, creating a holistic journey that extends from the lobbies to the heart of the development.

Throughout Pacific Center, the design team translated the expectations of hospitality into a life sciences setting. Hospitality-forward lobbies create a warm, welcoming first impression, while concierge services and shared touchdown spaces support a more service-oriented tenant experience. Outside, three buildings of varying scale frame a central plaza anchored by a mass timber amenity building with a market hall, restaurant, and fitness center. Architecturally, the design draws on the horizontal layers of the surrounding mesa, establishing a connection between landscape and built environment.

From brief to build, the team translated the campus vision into a coordinated ecosystem of architecture, amenities, landscape, and high-performance strategies.

The surrounding mesa inspired the design vision for the campus, from the horizontal expression of the buildings to the slender profile of the amenity building’s cantilevered roof. Mass timber was committed to early, allowing the team to use exposed glulam and CLT as both structure and finish. A fully electric central plant eliminates reliance on fossil fuels and optimizes heating and cooling performance across the campus by utilizing heat recovery systems that capture and reuse energy throughout the buildings.

Layering the Campus

The design layers mass timber, parking, landscape, and pedestrian circulation to turn infrastructure into part of the campus experience.

Impact

Pacific Center turns a lab-focused development into a more connected destination, combining high-performance design with amenities and spaces that support everyday interaction.

The completed amenity building establishes a shared gathering point for Pacific Center and neighboring developments, helping Sorrento Mesa evolve toward a more connected, human-centered district.

What Changed Because of This

01
A Holistic Experience
Hospitality-forward lobbies and shared spaces create a more welcoming experience for tenants and visitors from the moment they enter.
02
Integrated Ecosystem
The central plaza, amenity building, and outdoor spaces create opportunities for gathering, collaboration, wellbeing, and connection across the campus.
03
High Performance Campus
All-electric systems, mass timber, renewable energy, water strategies, and passive design advance the campus’s environmental goals to achieve LEED Gold and Fitwel certification.

With its all-electric infrastructure, mass timber centerpiece, and emphasis on experience, Pacific Center is designed to meet the evolving needs of today’s life sciences ecosystem.

Recognition

01

Interior Design Magazine

Honoree for Large Commercial Lobby + Amenity Space in the magazine’s Best of Year Awards, recognizing Gensler’s hospitality-forward design of Pacific Center’s shared amenity experience.

Team

Project Leadership

Todd Dundon

Todd partners with developers, real estate owners, corporate clients, and municipalities to shape vibrant mixed-use destinations and transformative development projects. His strategic approach brings together diverse stakeholder perspectives to create places that foster connection, economic vitality, and enduring value.

[FPO] Alex Fernandez

Placeholder for office leadership name "Alex Fernandez" — no matching pagePeople yet. "pnpm migrate resolve-stubs" swaps this for the real page once it exists.

Lori Mukoyama

Lori is a Principal and Global Hospitality Leader based in Chicago, with more than 25 years of experience creating experience-driven environments across hotel, restaurant, retail, and workplace sectors in the U.S. and around the world.

Erik Lustgarten

Erik helps leading biotechnology and research organizations translate complex scientific requirements into high-performing environments that support discovery and accelerate innovation. Combining technical expertise with a strategic approach, he creates spaces that empower scientists, foster collaboration, and support organizational growth.

FAQ

01

Where is Pacific Center located?

Pacific Center is located in San Diego’s Sorrento Mesa neighborhood, within the region’s growing life sciences research and development ecosystem.

02

How large is Pacific Center?

The full Pacific Center development is an 800,000-square-foot life sciences campus. The first phase includes two life sciences buildings, outdoor and collaboration spaces, parking, and a central amenity building.

03

What makes Pacific Center different from other life sciences campuses?

An amenities-forward strategy differentiates Pacific Center through a central campus heart, market hall, restaurant, fitness center, outdoor spaces, and a seamless indoor-outdoor experience rather than focusing solely on lab space.

04

What is the role of Pacific Center’s mass timber amenity building?

The 14,000-square-foot amenity building anchors the campus plaza and houses a market hall, restaurant, and fitness center. Its exposed timber structure creates warmth while reducing embodied carbon and finish materials.

05

What makes Pacific Center environmentally significant?

Pacific Center combines passive design, daylighting, increased ventilation, smart energy management, all-electric systems, heat recovery, efficient glazing, exterior shading, renewable energy, native plantings, EV charging, and mass timber to advance environmental performance.

Related Work

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Sanofi M Station

Sanofi M Station reimagines the workplace as a flagship, hospitality-forward destination, transforming the office into a place people want to be.

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222 Fifth

Located in the heart of Seattle’s innovation cluster, 222 Fifth is a state-of-the-art life science research facility and modern workplace that adapts to the evolving needs of the industry and surrounding community.

Related Expertise

Sciences Brand Design Climate Action Sustainability Strategy Office Developers Cities & Urban Design Climate Action & Sustainability Mixed Use & Retail Centers

Pacific Center transforms a life sciences campus into a connected, experience-driven destination, pairing high-performance labs with amenities, landscape, and community.

In a competitive life sciences market, Pacific Center had an opportunity to rethink the everyday experience, from the first arrival to the spaces where tenants gather, work, and recharge.

Why This Matters

The design brings a hospitality mindset to the life sciences campus experience, creating a holistic journey that extends from the lobbies to the heart of the development.

From brief to build, the team translated the campus vision into a coordinated ecosystem of architecture, amenities, landscape, and high-performance strategies.

Pacific Center turns a lab-focused development into a more connected destination, combining high-performance design with amenities and spaces that support everyday interaction.

What Changed Because of This