Request a Proposal

    City of Fremont

    New Civic Center

    Brightworks is supporting the City of Fremont to lay the groundwork for site-wide sustainability features across its new, six-acre Civic Center development, which will host city offices, a community center, private housing, and a parking structure.

    Home to Tesla’s primary vehicle assembly plant and located adjacent to Silicon Valley, the City of Fremont is the largest suburban municipality within the San Francisco Bay Area. Its population totals 220,000 people. It is now developing a new, 600,000-square-foot, mixed-use civic center to better deliver government services while reflecting the city’s prominence in a region known for innovation. The development is also intended to catalyze development in Fremont’s Downtown District.

    Fremont’s culture of innovation and energy

    To embody Fremont’s vibrant culture of innovation and energy, the city has mandated that the civic center not only pursue basic sustainability measures but also embrace advanced sustainability measures that demonstrate leadership in sustainability and make the civic center a model of sustainable development.

    Pursuing sustainability in a large, phased development

    To be developed in phases, the entire civic center site will be taken through schematic design, for which Brightworks will provide sustainability and LEED consulting while establishing a LEED master site program to streamline the LEED documentation in later phases.

    After schematic design, the city will complete the new community center, which will be used temporarily as a chamber for city council until the permanent city hall building is complete in a later phase. When the entire civic center is complete, it will feature a city administration building, a community center, a parking garage, and a multi-family housing condominium building, and a large plaza for public events.

    The new LEED v4

    For the community center building, the first phase of the development, Brightworks will manage the LEED certification program under the new LEED v4, which raises the bar for green buildings. Fremont’s Civic Center is targeting a minimum of LEED Gold certification. Brightworks’ LEED v4 experience includes the following projects, among others:

    • Caltech’s Thomas Lab Renovation in Pasadena, CA
    • Gerding Edlen Development’s Waterfront Condominiums and Office Building in Portland, OR
    • The City of Santa Monica’s Municipal Green Building Code LEED v4 update
    • The City of West Hollywood’s Municipal Green Building Code update

    Brightworks has also provided training in LEED v4 to the City of Portland, Skanska, Hoffman Construction, and other clients and partners.

    Renewable energy for carbon-neutrality

    The State of California is more progressive on carbon mitigation that any municipal entity in the United States, and solar energy is an emerging industry sector in Fremont. For this reason, the civic center will generate renewable energy on-site through a rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) array.

    A sustainable outdoor landscape

    The plaza at the core of the civic center site will embody sustainability as well, with infrastructure for bike commuters, an on-site stormwater management system, and paving with a high SRI index to reduce heat island effect.

    A detailed look at the building program

    The civic center building program breaks down as follows:

    • City Hall Building: 165,000 square feet
    • Community Center / Temporary Council Chambers: 25,000 square feet
    • Mixed-Use Retail Space: 10,000 square feet
    • Multi-Family Residential: 40-60 units
    • Structured Parking: 600-700 cars
    • Civic Center Plaza: 60,000 square feet
    • Civic Center Park:65,000 square feet
    • Future Annex Building (use to be determined): 15,000 – 60,000 square feet

    At a Glance

    • Fremont, CA
    • The rigorous, new LEED v4
    • Solar PVs to support local industry
    • Over 600,000 square feet