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Founder's Inc. Expansion
Founder's Inc. Expansion
San Francisco, CA, United States
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Other Projects by Studio BBA
Founder's Inc. Expansion
San Francisco, CA, United States
When our repeat client Founders, Inc. (F.inc) needed to expand their Fort Mason campus, they came back to us with a familiar challenge: create a space that serves the full spectrum of a founder's day. F.inc backs the next generation of entrepreneurs building in AI/ML, hardware, AR/VR, Web3, and emerging tech—and their growing community needed a space that could flex from daily communal lunches to hackathons, lectures, and focused heads-down work.
The expansion begins with an immersive entry hall washed in deep teal—a deliberate threshold that signals you're stepping into something different. The intrigue of the darkness draws you in before the space opens up to the vaulted ceilings and delicate historic touches mirrored in their original space. You move into a tone-on-tone color-drenched coffee bar with custom millwork counters, cypress island, and blue-stained cabinets—the social engine of the campus. This is where founders refill their espresso, linger, and find the kind of pause that leads to conversation, collaboration, and ideation. For large lectures and events, this space flexes into a host station and check-in, acting as a final threshold before entering the multi-purpose great room beyond.
The multi-purpose room opens bright and expansive, complemented by the dramatic vaulted ceilings and Golden Gate Bridge views—a flexible canvas built for collective learning and the energy of community. Redundant stage lighting is provided for 3 different stage locations on overhead tracks allows the space to shift from everyday work mode to full presentation setup. A large storage room allows the team to swap furniture seamlessly, transforming the space from lunch hall to lecture seating to a hackathon setup. Strategic furniture placement creates distinct zones within the open floor plan: lounge areas offer places to sit with a friend, share work on a laptop, or step back and let an idea breathe. A custom wall-mounted desk runs continuously along the west wall, supporting focused work with those sweeping Bay views. Unistrut is hung as an armature for drapes, backdrops, and screens to subdivide the space when needed, providing acoustic privacy without compromising the airy feel. This room is designed for the kind of human connection that pushes ideas further.
The break room gives founders a place to grab lunch or a snack without breaking flow, but also flexes into a catering kitchen behind closed doors for passed appetizers to intimate dinners. A private office provides a quieter setting for focused work or meetings that need a door. The green room—connected to the great room through a large repurposed glass storefront window and door from F.inc's adjacent space—serves as a retreat for guest speakers before they step on stage. The Green Room is also fitted out with acoustic treatment so it can also be a backdrop for podcast recordings with the energy of the great room visible just beyond the glass.
Working inside the National Historic Landmark of Fort Mason again, we used the same delicate touch with design insertions to respect the historic building. Just as in Phase 1, we worked closely with F.inc to establish a program that anticipates the incubator's needs while future-proofing the space—ensuring it feels great for 2 or 100+ people.
Studio BBA has deep experience designing workplaces for AI startups and emerging tech companies, where flexibility, collaboration, and momentum are non-negotiable. This expansion brings all of those priorities together in a space that supports founders at every stage—from early prototyping to scaling, from individual focus to community celebration, continuing the mission we began in their original Fort Mason campus.
The expansion begins with an immersive entry hall washed in deep teal—a deliberate threshold that signals you're stepping into something different. The intrigue of the darkness draws you in before the space opens up to the vaulted ceilings and delicate historic touches mirrored in their original space. You move into a tone-on-tone color-drenched coffee bar with custom millwork counters, cypress island, and blue-stained cabinets—the social engine of the campus. This is where founders refill their espresso, linger, and find the kind of pause that leads to conversation, collaboration, and ideation. For large lectures and events, this space flexes into a host station and check-in, acting as a final threshold before entering the multi-purpose great room beyond.
The multi-purpose room opens bright and expansive, complemented by the dramatic vaulted ceilings and Golden Gate Bridge views—a flexible canvas built for collective learning and the energy of community. Redundant stage lighting is provided for 3 different stage locations on overhead tracks allows the space to shift from everyday work mode to full presentation setup. A large storage room allows the team to swap furniture seamlessly, transforming the space from lunch hall to lecture seating to a hackathon setup. Strategic furniture placement creates distinct zones within the open floor plan: lounge areas offer places to sit with a friend, share work on a laptop, or step back and let an idea breathe. A custom wall-mounted desk runs continuously along the west wall, supporting focused work with those sweeping Bay views. Unistrut is hung as an armature for drapes, backdrops, and screens to subdivide the space when needed, providing acoustic privacy without compromising the airy feel. This room is designed for the kind of human connection that pushes ideas further.
The break room gives founders a place to grab lunch or a snack without breaking flow, but also flexes into a catering kitchen behind closed doors for passed appetizers to intimate dinners. A private office provides a quieter setting for focused work or meetings that need a door. The green room—connected to the great room through a large repurposed glass storefront window and door from F.inc's adjacent space—serves as a retreat for guest speakers before they step on stage. The Green Room is also fitted out with acoustic treatment so it can also be a backdrop for podcast recordings with the energy of the great room visible just beyond the glass.
Working inside the National Historic Landmark of Fort Mason again, we used the same delicate touch with design insertions to respect the historic building. Just as in Phase 1, we worked closely with F.inc to establish a program that anticipates the incubator's needs while future-proofing the space—ensuring it feels great for 2 or 100+ people.
Studio BBA has deep experience designing workplaces for AI startups and emerging tech companies, where flexibility, collaboration, and momentum are non-negotiable. This expansion brings all of those priorities together in a space that supports founders at every stage—from early prototyping to scaling, from individual focus to community celebration, continuing the mission we began in their original Fort Mason campus.
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