North Creek Technology Campus III was originally designed as a four-building speculative development, but was later changed to three buildings when a tenant was signed up in the early stages of construction. Photo by Matt Todd Photography

North Creek Technology Campus III began as a speculative tech/office complex that included a pair of three-story, 92,000-square-foot office buildings and a pair of two-story, 74,000-square-foot tech buildings. It was built on a tight schedule so that the developer could take advantage of the then-hot real estate market.

With site, utility and foundation work under way, a single tenant was found for the entire campus. That news required the project’s schedule to be accelerated even faster — and the need for a single L-shaped structure, which was created by joining the two tech buildings together.

Tilt-up construction, which was being used on the buildings, allowed for greater flexibility when it came to creating a single building from the two tech buildings. Joining the two buildings was a matter of simply adding tilt-up panels, along with other modifications.

Using tilt-up concrete allowed the project’s design team to create a level of detail and depth-of-field that provided a highly articulated bay, as well as an economical approach to the buildings’ exteriors. The buildings feature modulated exteriors with many traditional architectural details — window and cornice trims, and relief and textured form liner applications at window openings — found on more expensive, institutional quality buildings.

Building exteriors were finished off with a sophisticated color scheme, creating the look of a more expensive cladding system.