Spanning roughly 36 hectares between the forested hills of Mount Burdell and the wetlands of Petaluma Marsh along Highway 101, the site was acquired by the Eames Institute in August 2025. Designed in the 1960s by John Savage Bolles—one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s prominent California Modernist architects—in collaboration with structural engineer Raj Desai, the complex features structural solutions that define its architectural character.
Originally, the two buildings served distinct functions: one was a book distribution center, while the other housed offices for McGraw-Hill, one of the nation’s leading publishing houses. In the early 1990s, the complex was acquired by Birkenstock USA, which occupied it until 2019 before leaving it vacant.