hazyville:

The Ziggurat is a ten-story, stepped pyramidal office building and adjacent 5 story concrete parking structure located in West Sacramento, California on the shore of the Sacramento River. Designed to resemble the ancient Mesopotamian ziggurats, the building was built by The Money Store in 1997 and is currently leased by the California Department of General Services (DGS). It is the headquarters to DGS.

Located on more than 7 acres (28,000 m²) adjacent to the Tower Bridge, the unusually designed office building contains more than 320,000 square feet (30,000 m²) of usable office area.

Structure and Exterior

The structure of the building is a standard column and beam steel superstructure, set upon a pre-stressed concrete pile foundation system. The structural steel is designed to resist a seismic event of up to 6.9 on the Richter scale, an extremely high standard for the Sacramento area. The exterior skin of the building consists of Minnesota Gray Buff limestone panels. Each panel weighs over four tons.

Technology

Critical areas of the building have 75 kW emergency power back-up system and 300 kW UPS (uninterrupted power system). In addition, the building has a dual electric power feed from two separate electrical components.

A centralized monitoring facility allows video security surveillance throughout the interior and exterior of the building.

The communications center has a dual fiber feed from two local fiber communication companies (four separate fiber connections).

In addition to dedicated telephone and computer equipment rooms on each floor, there is a 3,600-square-foot (330 m²) raised floor computer room with isolated Liebert units for controlled temperature and climatic conditions on the third floor.

The building has five traction elevators serving all floors, as well as an additional hydraulic elevator that provides service between the basement parking area and the first floor.

Parking

The on-site parking structure contains places for 1,649 vehicles. There are also accommodations for secured bicycle parking. All access into and out of the structure is controlled by card key access. The first floor is enclosed by wrought iron fence. The parking structure is cast-in-place concrete with tensioned decks. It is designed to withstand a 6.8 seismic event. Two traction elevators serve each floor.

Amenities

The building contains an employee fitness center equipped with Nautilus-style exercise equipment, shower and locker facilities.

Fast Faktz:

• The terraced pyramid-shaped office building on the west side of Sacramento River in West Sacramento, overlooks Old Sacramento and the Tower Bridge.
• The Exterior is clad in Minnesota limestone and a high performance glass which has a special beige dot matrix coating that matches the color of the limestone.
• The 4-story high atrium ceiling is domed and features intricate detail work and exquisite painting creating an illusion of openness.
• The project cost $60 million and opened spring, 1998.
• The entire building was designed in accordance with the traditional rules of the Chinese philosophy of Feng Shui.
• The Ziggurat was The Money Store Western Headquarters before before the Company’s collapse.
• One of the first new buildings in the United States to use Seismic Dampers.
• Ground floor footprint is 300x300 ft. with 10 ft. setbacks at each story to uppermost floor at 90x120 ft.
• It was featured in the clip for Young G’s ‘Killer Chronics’.