Inside Thom Mayne’s Federal Building

“One reason the complex [in San Francisco] has attracted so much attention is that it embraces two architectural values that often are at odds: sustainability and pure aesthetics. Mayne boasts of how the tower should consume just one-third the energy of a typical California office building, saving enough electricity to power 600 homes per year. But the perforated steel panels that are supposed to filter the sun and glare don’t hang straight against the slab. They careen up and over the tower: ‘I’m interested in skin as a sculptural idea’.”