Tenderloin to get semi-permanent food hall, spotlighting woman-, minority-owned businesses
Carrie Sisto | Hoodline
Plans for a female-led food hall that will stand for approximately five years in the Tenderloin took a step forward this week, as the city announced a lease and some financial support.
The food hall will occupy the old US Post Office building at 101 Hyde St., which is eventually destined to become an affordable housing development under the aegis of the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development.
Construction on the housing project is slated to start in 2025, but in the meantime, the long-vacant post office space will be leased to La Cocina, a non-profit that works to support woman- and minority-owned food businesses and lower their barriers to entry into the restaurant industry.
The La Cocina Municipal Marketplace will serve double duty as a below-market-rate retail and commercial kitchen space for woman-owned businesses looking for a start in the city, as well as an affordable food option for Tenderloin residents on tight budgets…
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…
AP+I Design, Inc. crafted a confidential global law firm’s offices in San Francisco to harmonize comfort and elegance while framing iconic Bay views and enhancing community connectivity from the 30th floor.
Office Snapshots
Love Letter to San Francisco
Located on the 30th floor of one of the most iconic buildings in the heart of San Francisco’s Financial District, the expansion of this global law firm benefits from some of the most iconic views of San Francisco.
The project aims to capture and frame each of the Bay’s Landmarks while offering a highly efficient and comfortable environment. From the first step into the neighborhood, the design captures the journey of the visitor. It reflects the building’s elegant, sober character while introducing a layer of comfort through soft textures and inviting warmth.
A highly crafted internal stair links the renovated reception area to the new community hub, which serves as a place for community, work, and learning. The result is a cohesive, elevated workplace—one that enhances functionality, reinforces connection, and places the city itself at the forefront of the experience.
We invite you to adopt a ‘bird’s-eye’ perspective to view this project. By observing the city from above, the complex interactions of its inhabitants become clear, appearing as rhythmic movements within a structural landscape of stone, glass, and nature.
Design: AP+I Design
Contractor: BCCI Construction
Engineers: Randall Lamb Associates, Thornton Tomasetti
Furniture Dealer: CRI
Photography: John Sutton
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…