A Tall Order

US Bank Tower will be tallest building in downtown Sacramento

By Greg Aragon

The new 25-story US Bank Tower will not only be the tallest building in downtown Sacramento, but it will also boast one of the most distinctive pubic spaces in the area.

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"One of the spectacular things about the building is the lobby," says Ellen Warner, vice president of design and construction for David S. Taylor Interests Inc. of Sacramento, the project's developer. "No matter where you enter, you experience it; there is nothing like it."

Designed by the San Francisco office of HOK, Inc., the $132 million tower is located along Capital Mall, downtown Sacramento's main thoroughfare. It is bounded by Sixth Street, Capitol Mall, Seventh Street, and L Street.
Greeley, Colo.-based Hensel Phelps Construction Co., via its Northern California office in San Jose, is serving as general contractor.

The project, which sits across the street from a Westfield shopping plaza and three blocks from the State Capitol, is being constructed by on a previously vacant parcel of land.

"The US Bank Tower removes a considerable hole in the ground that we've had for a longtime," says Michael Ault, executive director of Downtown Sacramento Partnership, a business improvement coalition of 250 property owners. "The project istaking arguably the last piece of undeveloped land in the central business district."

Ground was broken on the project in February 2006. When complete in spring 2008, the tower stand 400 ft tall and shimmer with a contemporary-styled glass and aluminum exterior.

The tower will offer 344,289 sq ft of rentable Class A office space on floors eight through 25; a 300,000-sq-ft, eight-level parking garage with 813 spaces; and 20,927 sq ft of ground level retail, which will include a restaurant, bank and coffee shop.

Anchor tenants include Downey Brand LLP of Sacramento, which is leasing 85,000 sq ft of office space, and Minneapolis-based US Bank, which purchased naming rights on the building and is leasing 34,500 sq ft, including a ground-floor branch.

Tying the retail and parking to the office floors above will be a dramatic seven-story-high entrance lobby, with suspended art and an open-air feel.

Facing Capital Mall, the atrium will be clad in high-performance clear glass on two sides.

"Many of the buildings in Sacramento are government buildings, without a lot of activity in the base," says Alan Bright, HOK project designer. "We wanted the lobby to be open and have people be able to see inside as well as outside."

With a 90-ft-tall by 70-ft-wide wall of glass on the lobby's south side, transparency shouldn't be a problem.

"The lobby is open and gives you a sense of volume," says Bryan Amarel, Hensel Phelps project manager. "It's embracing and creates warmth to anyone that walks in; it's a destination."

To park and enter the building, visitors will encounter a balcony overlooking the lobby at every parking level. They will then have to take an elevator to the lobby floor, where they can catch another elevator to the office floors.

"We have to pull people out of the parking levels anyway and after Sept. 11, everybody is worried about letting people get into their building," says Warner. "That is why you bring them to the lobby before bringing them up into the building. This is security measure that we handled in a way that actually makes it like an amenity."

The Project Team

Developer: David S. Taylor Interests, Sacramento
General Contractor: Hensel Phelps, San Jose office
Architect: HOK, San Francisco
Major subcontractors: Middlebrook + Louie of San Francisco (structural engineer), Rex Moore Electrical Contractors & Engineers of Sacramento, and Frank M. Booth Inc. of Marysville (mechanical engineers)

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