The building
NASA's Sustainability Base at Ames Research Center was designed to be one of the most environmentally advanced federal buildings ever built: LEED Platinum, net-zero energy, with systems that adapt to occupancy and climate in real time. The building itself was a story worth telling.
Design challenge
The brief was handed to visitors, dignitaries, and stakeholders to communicate the building's significance and the technology inside it. The audience ranged from engineers who understood the systems to elected officials who needed to understand the achievement.
When the subject matter is legitimately extraordinary, the design's job is to get out of the way and then elevate. Not to perform drama, but to carry it.
The design grounded itself in NASA's identity while establishing the building as something more than architecture. By translating the complexity of its systems—energy generation, water management, structural innovation—it unfolded a narrative to get excited about.
Cover and interior spread.
Working at NASA scale
NASA work requires a different kind of attention to detail than most print projects. The brand standards are exacting, and the institutional stakes are high. Managing production requirements and meeting those standards under real constraints is what made the collateral work.
