Biotech firm 10x Genomics is on a meteoric rise, growing from a Bay Area garage start-up to a 1,200-plus-person firm in just the last decade. Supporting the company as they design and manufacture the gene sequencing technology that’s opening new doors in scientific discovery, a brand-new campus in Pleasanton, CA welcomes even further growth and expansion. The recent ribbon cutting for a state-of-the-art, 150,000-square-foot building marks the completion of phase one of the campus project, with two more buildings still on the horizon.

Conceived as a “science village set within a park,” the campus landscape plan drafted by global design, architecture, engineering and planning firm HOK centers around offering employees productive and gratifying opportunities to work outside.

"The vision was to really embrace and enhance the outdoor working environment, creating spaces where employees can have meetings, conversations, and do small group work,” describes Benjamin Kuchinsky, Senior Landscape Architect at HOK. "People on this campus work hard and they work long, so it was important for us to balance the need for efficient, functional outdoor workspaces with the health and wellbeing benefits of offering a connection to nature." 

Centering around the entrances and plaza spaces adjacent to the new building, a carefully curated collection of Landscape Forms elements creates a variety of welcoming work and respite settings. Compositions of Parallel 42 and Generation 50 benches offer places to have lunch, a casual conversation, and a connection to nature, while a customized Upfit structure— which Kuchinsky describes as the space’s “anchor”—brings the office outside.

"We’ve worked with Landscape Forms on a number of projects, and we love the versatility of their products and the way they’re engineered for comfort and purpose,” he says. 

That’s where Upfit came in. Kuchinsky and team created a customized outdoor workspace based on the Upfit solution, framed by Ipe wood slatted panels and sheltered by Upfit’s weather-sensing automated roof louvers. Inside, inline bar-height seating joins Chipman stools and GO OutdoorTables with integrated device charging to ensure the space is always ready for the task at hand.

"I’ve been attracted to Upfit from the moment I saw what it enabled us to do. As landscape architects, of course we can always do totally custom things.  But with budget and time constraints, that’s not always realistic,” Kuchinsky continues. "Being able to specify so many options for different table heights, different seating, different materials, different panels, different openings and levels of privacy."