{"id":251452,"date":"2025-03-10T11:54:43","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T15:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/?post_type=id_news&p=251452"},"modified":"2025-03-10T11:54:52","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T15:54:52","slug":"zgf-architects-illumina-staircase-san-diego","status":"publish","type":"id_news","link":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/designwire\/zgf-architects-illumina-staircase-san-diego\/","title":{"rendered":"DNA’s Double Helix Informs The Design Of This Biotech Center"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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March 10, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n

Words: <\/span>Wilson\u00a0Barlow<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photography: <\/span>Alexander Severin<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

DNA’s Double Helix Informs The Design Of This Biotech Center<\/h1>\n\n\n

DNA\u2019s double helix has been emblematic of the sciences ever since Francis Crick and James Watson published their 1953 paper revealing its twisted-ladder structure. It\u2019s also part of the day-to-day business of Illumina, a San Diego biotechnology company that makes gene-sequencing tools. That\u2019s why ZGF Architects<\/a>, an industry leader in healthcare and research facilities, for such clients as Kaiser Permanente and Google, contributing to the firm\u2019s rank of 21 among the Interior Design <\/em>top 100 Giants for 2025, turned to that shape as a motif for Illumina\u2019s new executive briefing center. With sustainability another ZGF pillar, the 30,000-square-foot, public-facing space, functioning as a catalyst for forging customer relationships with researchers and clinicians, offering event, group and private work, and breakout areas, is also an adaptative reuse project, built in a four-story storage facility already existing on the campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connecting the center\u2019s three-story atrium is a grand staircase rendered in Di-Noc\u2013finished steel, its form inspired by the double helix. \u201cThe substructure was particularly complicated,\u201d ZGF partner James Woolum explains. \u201cThe first run of stairs is a spiral, while the second is an ellipse, meaning they had to be engineered independently.\u201d The structures were broken down into 25 precision-engineered sections, each made in Portland, Oregon, and shipped to San Diego. \u201cThat required precise coordination of dimensions between off-site fabrication and on-site construction,\u201d Woolum continues. He then chose terrazzo for treads and concealed gently glowing LEDs along the inner balustrade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additional illumination, in function and name, comes from IllumaLens, <\/em>Ray King\u2019s 42-foot-high, site-specific installation of more than 5,000 glass pieces that refracts sunlight and changes color throughout the day. \u201cThe flow cells inside Illumina\u2019s gene sequencer,\u201d Woolum adds, \u201chave a similar kind of dichroic quality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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