Studio Plow Designs a Meditative Startup HQ in San Francisco

Edie Cohen | Architect Magazine

Faire now occupies a 1910 brick-and-timber former warehouse. After the architect of record addressed the necessary seismic and infrastructure upgrades, Brit Epperson, founder of Studio Plow, embraced the building’s rich, architectural history with the maxim: “Let’s lean into it.” Work spaces, mostly benching configurations, span the three levels. Nothing is crowded: Epperson made sure to limit neighborhoods to 25 employees and intersperse them with amenities. Lounges, a total of 22 throughout, are rife with seating options, beckoning as alternative work zones. Ad-hoc meeting areas can be cordoned off with textile partitions. Dozens of conference rooms plus a boardroom offer more traditional gathering outlets.

There are also multiple spots for recharging. The airy commissary, which doubles as the all-hands space, is populated with minimalist white steel picnic benches and pendant globes along with warmer Windsor-style ash chairs and round teak tables. Just past reception, again warm with a sectional sofa upholstered in brassy velvet, is Petit Faire, a French bistro–inspired coffee bar with a white-oak communal table and accessories from Faire wholesale vendors. Pantries, one per floor, are well-stocked, and live interior landscaping by a local LGBTQ-owned business is everywhere. (There’s also a pop-up with rotating Faire merchandise.)…

Adobe Headquarters Renovation

Architect Magazine

Adobe’s newly reimagined headquarters, located in the heart of downtown San Jose, CA, highlights its creative, innovative and collaborative culture with inspirational design and aesthetics. Gensler collaborated with Adobe on the renovations to center on modern, vibrant design and open floor plans. A variety of communal areas and alternative work spaces draw people together, inspiring collaboration and innovation. Creative updates transform the everyday work experience for employees…

Square Inc. Headquarters

Ian Volner | Architect Magazine

“Simple, direct, and quite beautiful. It’s a pleasant surprise to find this inside an existing building.” —Jury statement

Anyone who’s bought a vase at a pop-up boutique or artisanal cheese from a farmer’s market has encountered Square, the smartphone extension that allows even the smallest businesses to quickly and easily process credit card transactions. Small, svelte, quadrangular (as befits the name), Square’s square is one of the more appealing design objects to emerge from the digital sector, and the people that make them now have a correspondingly design-forward headquarters in San Francisco. Created by a team in the San Francisco office of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, the 295,000-square-foot interior is charged with all the hipness one would expect of a Bay Area tech firm, but has an ease and airiness that suggests a company more assured and mature than the typical startup…

Inside Poly’s New Office Scotts Valley

Office Snapshots

AP+I Design transformed Poly’s new office in Scotts Valley to reflect the Santa Cruz coast’s beauty, integrating a ‘Changing Tides’ design concept that honors the region’s connection and inspires a new joint culture.

Poly has deep roots in the Santa Cruz community, the site of their previous campus location. For the Scotts Valley project, the client wanted to continue celebrating that connection in their new space. This led to the design concept of Changing Tides, paying homage to the Santa Cruz coastline and natural beauty of where the land meets the sea.

With Poly’s acquisition by HP mid-project, the team was given the additional project goals of reassuring employees and encouraging them to foster a new joint culture through the implementation of a ‘social office’—a space that enables users to gather, share and connect.

The site boasts incredible views of the surrounding Santa Cruz Mountains and easy access to landscaped gardens and mature redwood trees. The top floor workspace frames and enhances those views with serene, natural finishes that reference the rhythms and materials of the California coast. The concept of Changing Tides links the ebbs and flows of water to the passage of time, while still being constant and reassuring. Flowing lines and forms are repeated throughout the space, including the curved coffee bar and custom felt underwater topographic (or bathygraphic) map wall.

Changing Tides also alludes to Poly’s company history. Apollo 11 astronauts wore Poly’s (then Plantronics’) ‘Snoopy’ headset on their mission to the moon—that same satellite that influences the movement of the ocean. The entry of the lab space is a moment to experience this connection, with dark finishes highlighting a moon-inspired feature ceiling. The rest of the floor focuses on HP-Poly’s ambition and drive to innovate for the future while celebrating its rich legacy.

Design: AP+I Design
Contractor: BCCI Construction
Photography: John Sutton

Inside Aurora’s Headquarters in Mountain View

Office Snapshots

The light-filled, expansive workspace of Aurora was designed to house many of the company’s functions under one roof: customer and partner relations, open offices, amenities, garage space and technical labs.

AP+I Design created a thoughtful space utilizing curves and natural light at the Aurora headquarters in Mountain View, California.

The open road
A light-filled, expansive workspace was designed to house many of the company’s functions under one roof: customer and partner relations, open offices, amenities, garage space and technical labs. To create a cohesive story throughout the 111,000 sf space and remind employees and visitors of this company’s mission, the design team drew inspiration from the romance and freedom of the open road.

Pick your destination
The building was divided into destination areas that correspond to the various landscapes one can experience driving through the Golden State—lakes, beaches, forests, deserts and mountains. Primary circulation through the neighborhoods is marked by the Open Road, echoed both on the concrete floor and the ceiling above. Organic patterns relating to each area flow visually from area to area. Prominent signage allows for easy navigation to destinations near (crosswalks with directional icons) or far (wayfinding inspired by freeway signs).

Scenic stops
The workplace provides a variety of choices for different modes of work, including the main hub which mimics the feel of being under the canopy of a redwood forest. Smaller, more protected spaces resembling cabins by the water allow for more focused work.

Nature in the details
The warmth and charm of a road trip is further reflected in the design team’s chosen materials: glazed brick tile, solid raw-edge shelves and tables (crafted by one of the company’s team members), providing the asymmetry and imperfections found in nature. Other subtle nods, from oversize river rocks to bent-wood furniture that brings to mind waves on a lake shore, allowing the traveler to feel grounded in the space.

Each element of design was made to encourage connection and interaction amongst users and provides a touchstone to their work’s purpose: to benefit people and communities by making automated driving technology safe and accessible.

Design: AP+I Design
Contractor: BCCI Construction
Photography: John Sutton

Inside Expedia’s New San Francisco Offices

Office Snapshots

Travel booking site Expedia recently moved into a new office space designed by Rapt Studio and built by BCCI Construction. The new office is meant to be tailored to the local workforce but flexible enough to accommodate mobile workers.

For their San Francisco office, Expedia wanted a space with a raw and natural feel, selecting 10,000 sf at a historic building: 114 Sansome Street.

Expedia wanted a wide range of environments and an office that was more tailored to a mobile workforce – flexibility was key. With a mix of environments and functionality, staff are able find their own personal nook within the space, offering a place for both introverts and extroverts. Rapt’s design team took into account such variables as preferred seating and types and postures, as well as different sound levels – incorporating lively and quiet zones. After-hours lighting also ensures that the space takes on a different feel after dark, much like the character of any city or urban environment…

Santen Pharmaceutical Offices – Emeryville

Office Snapshots

Kava Massih Architects design the offices for Santen Pharmaceutical located in Emeryville, California.

Santen Pharmaceutical Co., headquartered in Osaka, Japan is a leading global opthamalic and rheumatologic pharmaceutical company with operations in 19 countries. Kava Massih Architects provided programming, planning and interior design services for their new 34,000 sq ft US headquarters.

The program includes a series of varying sized meeting spaces from small office-size breakout rooms up to large training spaces. The main entry lobby has a large stepped seating platform connected to an existing mezzanine that functions as an all hands meeting space. There are several kitchen/cafe spaces as well as other informal lounge spaces for staff to gather and work collaboratively. Natural light is brought into the space through numerous skylights…

CBRE Offices – San Francisco

Office Snapshots

Ware Malcomb, an award-winning international design firm, announced construction is complete on the new offices of the property management division of CBRE located at 150 California Street, 4th Floor in San Francisco. Ware Malcomb provided interior architecture and design and branding services for the project.

The new offices of CBRE, a global commercial real estate services and investment firm, span 14,000 square feet and a full floor of the landmark 150 California building in the heart of San Francisco’s financial district…

Capital One Labs – San Francisco Offices

Office Snapshots

Studio O+A designed a new design lab in San Francisco for Capital One Labs, the group responsible for Capital One’s app and online interface development.

A bank is not a client to whom designers would normally suggest their most adventurous color choices, but the creative team at Capital One Labs in San Francisco was an exception. This group, which develops apps for easy and effective interface with Capital One’s online customers, wanted their space to reflect the wide open spirit of their team. Capital One Labs is essentially a design studio, and the people who work there wanted it to look like one. They didn’t want to drape it in banker’s gray…