CARB Southern Headquarters, Mary D. Nichols Campus

Riverside, CA

Winner of DBIA National awards for Best in Engineering Design and Best Use of BIM/VDC, this new southern headquarters for the California Air Resources Board was the largest Zero-Net Energy building in the United States when completed. Designed to house 460 employees, the main feature of the headquarters is a cutting-edge vehicle testing facility containing seven light/medium duty testing bays, as well as three testing bays big enough to accommodate the largest heavy-duty trucks and buses.

An innovative structural design was required in order to integrate the goals and values of the California Department of General Services. To meet these goals, Buehler approached the building material and framing selection from a holistic standpoint, designing high-caliber structural systems while also uniting the project's sustainability goals, life-cycle costs, and seismic performance needs. While still connected from an architectural and user standpoint, the project consisted of seven seismically and thermally separated buildings, thereby allowing the specific framing systems to be optimized for the unique programmatic requirements of each department and building. The resulting facility is a world-class entity that will serve California for generations to come.