10 - Attachment 6CDG
CANNON
DESIGN
GROUP
August 31, 2011
Mr. Joel Paulson
Community Development Department
Town of Los Gatos
110 E. Main Street
P.O. Box 949)
Los Gatos, CA 95031
RE: Albright Netflix Corporate Campus
ARCHITECTURE
PLANNING URBAN DESIGN
Dear Joel:
I have worked closely over the past several weeks with Form 4 Architects in the review and refinement of the site plan
and buildings design for this project. The project is unique in scale for the Town of Los Gatos, but as the design has
progressed, I have felt that it is well conceived and will fit comfortably into the context of this site. The collaboration
with the architects has been very open, and they have been responsive to the dialogue and the exploration of alternative
solutions when site plan and building design concerns were raised.
At this point, I feel that most of the issues that I raised have been adequately addressed and resolved. In a couple of
instances where time has not allowed the full resolution of an issue, I have been assured by the architects that they will
continue to work on them during the design development phase of the project, and that their client and the end tenant
for the campus are in agreement with that continued design refinement.
The three issues that are still outstanding and worthy of further study and refinement are as follows:
1. There are two elements on the 5 story Building E west elevation that do not yet seem to be fully resolved. The first
is the secondary entry from the front guest parking area. It is not as well integrated into the overall design as the rest of
the buildings' details. And, the trellis at the entry, while perhaps reflecting the trellis elements on the upper levels, seems
less substantial than the other ground floor design elements. The architects have indicated that they will continue studies
on this element.
The secondary entry and the resolution of
the second floor roof termination at this point
are two areas that need further refinement
Building E Issues
TEL:
EMAIL:
180 HARBOR DRIVE
415.331.3795
cdgplan@pacbell.net
SUITE 219
FAX: 415.331.3797
SAUSALITO . CA 94965
ATTACHMENT 6
Albright Netflie Corporate Campus
Design Review Comments
August 31, 2011 Page 2
The second element is the termination of the second level roof adjacent to this secondary entry where it reaches the
two-story wall element to the south. In other locations (e.g., at the south end of Building D's west elevation), similar
roofs terminate in a building volume rather than hanging out free. This more resolved solution can be seen on the draw-
ing at the bottom of this page. As above, the architects have indicated that they will continue exploring alternatives for
this roof condition.
2. The last issue relates to a wall condition where the initial proposal seemed to make the frontingwalls in a few
locations appear to float free of the structure behind, rather than being a part of the overall building volume - one of
the features that make the existing Netflix building seem so substantial and visually balanced. The architects' goal is to
give the structure a more contemporary feel. We have discussed this, and the architects have studied a simple change of
matching the return wall color to the front wall, rather than contrasting it with a lighter color as shown in the application
drawing below. No change in the basic design is required. This seems to me to be a preferable solution.
Wall appears to b floating and not as desirable
as the alternative studied by the architects
Floating Wall Issue
Changing the wall color seems like a
better solution for this wall condition
Floating Wall Issue - Architects' Alternative Study
CANNON DESIGN GROUP 180 HARBOR DRIVE . SUITE 219 . SAUSALITO . CA 94965
Albright Netflix Corporate Campus
Design Review Comments
August 31, 2011 Page 3
Apart from these minor issues which can be resolved in the future, I have no other issues with the design as proposed.
Joel, please let me know if you have any questions, or if there are specific issues of concern that I did not address.
Sincerely,
CANNON DESIGN GROUP
Larry Cannon AICP
CANNON DESIGN GROUP 180 HARBOR DRIVE . SUITE 219 . SAUSALITO . CA 94965
THIS PAGE
INTENTIONALLY
LEFT BLANK