Spectrum IV Office Campus – Torrey Pines

Spectrum IV is the newest addition to Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc.’s Spectrum Collection in the heart of San Diego’s Torrey Pines science cluster. This anticipated LEED Gold facility consists of 170,000 square feet of state-of-the-art laboratory and office building above underground parking. It includes over an acre of outdoor conferencing, meeting, and amenity spaces.

Spectrum IV is the new home of Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ San Diego operations. Vertex develops medications to prolong and enrich the lives of those with serious diseases. The facility features a science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) learning lab and, an incubator suite to cultivate and partner with start-up companies and frequently tours patients and their families through its facility to meet the researchers and for the researchers to meet them. From the entry sequence, through the building and out into the outdoor amenity area, the visitor’s experience is punctuated by moments of observation, pursuit, and intuition, and culminates in a canyon overlook to views on the mountains and beyond. The rhythmic perforated fins of the feature wall draw visitors into the lobby. It bisects the two wings of the building and is reminiscent of the trachea and the lobes of the lungs; a nod to the airway and respiratory system, so vital to protect and integral to cystic fibrosis medications that Vertex develops.

The building is strategically oriented on the bluff to allow for unobstructed distant mountain and canyon views while the shape of the building allows for intimate views of the landscape and for outdoor conferencing. Each facade reacts to its specific solar orientation, optimizing the shade through a continuous canopy that varies in length, dependent on sun exposure, with strategically placed louvers and projecting fins. Sustainable aspects of the project include innovative stormwater design, water-efficient landscaping and use reduction, optimized energy performance, high-performance glazing and lighting, and construction with low-emitting, recycled, and regional materials.