Internationally recognized design firms SHoP Architects and Studio O+A have been selected to create Uber’s new headquarters in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco. At a time when many tech companies are creating campuses far from city centers, Uber has made a commitment in its new home to support the continued vitality of the urban environment and to help complete a thriving mixed‐use neighborhood. The 423,000-square-foot project in two adjoining structures will be developed on vacant lots and deliver a rarity in San Francisco: an office building designed specifically for the company that will occupy it.
The architecture will be open and environmentally responsible. An eleven‐story tower at 1455 Third Street and a six‐story structure at 1515 Third Street will help transform this transit‐rich intersection into a dynamic, pedestrian‐friendly neighborhood. Along Third Street, small‐scale, new retail will be incorporated into the ground floors of each building. The project includes streetscape improvements and public amenities on Pierpoint Lane, and an intersecting pedestrian walkway. A small city park on Pierpoint will be completely refurbished to contemporary standards for active use and will include a purpose‐built daycare center. A feature known as the Commons—a network of circulation and gathering spaces—negotiates the human scale with the urban scale, bringing the life of the building into contact with the life of the streets.
The multi‐story Commons will front both buildings on Third Street, creating a kinetic experience that SHoP principal Chris Sharples and O+A principal Denise Cherry liken to the experience of San Francisco itself.
SHoP is designing Uber’s new global headquarters in San Francisco in partnership with interior design firm Assembly. At a time when many tech companies are creating campuses far from city centers, Uber has made a commitment in its new home to support the continued vitality of the urban environment.
The project’s goal is to bring this developing stretch of the Mission Bay neighborhood into step with the successful, human-scaled urban environments for which San Francisco is so famous.
Key to that goal is the “inside-out” design of the two buildings. The 423,000 square foot project includes an eleven-story tower at 1455 Third Street and a six-story structure at 1515 Third Street with an almost fully-transparent operable facade. These adjoined buildings will be catalysts for transforming this neglected stretch of largely new construction into a dynamic, pedestrian-friendly neighborhood.
Along Third Street, a deep setback creates a generous, partially-shaded public plaza designed to support and accommodate what is expected to be increased activity at the adjacent light-rail station. The project also includes streetscape improvements and public amenities on Pierpoint Lane, an intersecting pedestrian way. A feature known as the Commons—a striking network of circulation and gathering spaces—will bring the life of the building into contact with the life of the streets, and allow views of the living city to serve as a continual inspiration for the creative work taking place inside.
This new workplace, Uber's first ground-up building, also marks a departure from the growing trend of an entirely open plan office. Instead, work stations are arranged in a series of smaller neighborhoods, each with access to shared support and collaborative work zones. Defined by their distinct palettes and elevated materiality, these neighborhoods echo the rich mix of lifestyles essential to the health of every urban environment—and every large company.
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