Department of General Services / May Lee State Office Complex

APPROACH
May Lee State Office Complex is a transformative workplace campus in downtown Sacramento that advances California’s goals for decarbonization, urban renewal, and employee well-being. Spanning four office towers and shared amenity spaces, the project required an experiential graphics program that could unify a large civic campus while expressing the culture, landscape, and evolving identity of the River District.

A strategy grounded in three themes—paying tribute to the past, growing the present, and cultivating the future—shaped the design approach. Graphics were integrated early with the architecture to create a seamless relationship between brand, place, and function. Each tower received a distinct identity through large-scale California grizzly graphic inspired by Sacramento’s colors, materials, history, and local character. Additional moments celebrate the region through wildlife-inspired childcare graphics, iconic landmark photography within connecting stairs, bicycle culture installations, wellness center graphics that encourage movement, and servery branding inspired by Sacramento’s farm-to-fork heritage. Together, these layered interventions create a campus experience rooted in sustainability, culture, and community.

OUTCOME
The result is a vibrant and highly cohesive workplace environment that brings character and identity to a large multi-building campus. The graphics program strengthens orientation, enriches everyday movement, and transforms shared spaces into moments of connection and discovery. By drawing from Sacramento’s history, ecology, and local culture, the project creates a meaningful sense of place while supporting employee wellness, pride, and a forward-looking vision for the future of state workplaces.

Work completed under ZGF Architects LLP