Ballston Quarter Macy's Office Terraces Washington, DC
Services Provided
Amenity Spaces
Landscape Architecture
Design
Documentation
People Involved
Jonathan Fitch
Tim Bragan
Lyn Wenzel
A series of functional outdoor work terraces contrast the pristine glass walls of the surrounding office building and provide spatial, material, and experiential diversity for users.
The Ballston Macy’s Office Building Terraces project encompasses a total of four outdoor amenity terraces for a multi-story office building located above an existing Macy’s department store in the Ballston Quarter district of Arlington, Virginia. Working closely with the architect and structural engineer, MKSK devised a series of precise and innovative design responses to the extremely tight structural loading requirements associated with the retrofit of an existing structure. Conceptually, the design responds to the arrangement of the interrelated cascading terraces, taking advantage of microclimatic and
spatial qualities by associating each terrace with a regional ecological archetype. The penthouse terrace, sunny and open to the sky, evokes a highland meadow. Here, a programmatically flexible field of synthetic turf is nestled between rolling berms planted with ornamental grasses and perennials. A trellis ‘grove,’ with slats that correspond to an adjacent interior ceiling condition, provides shade and a sense of enclosure. Together, these four terraces provide a playful background and a variety of exterior spaces for meetings, individual work, informal gatherings, and larger office events.
