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.
Architecture will be open, 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, an intersecting pedestrian way. 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. The Commons continues to form the essential circulation of the eleven‐story structure, crossing above Pierpoint Lane as three angling glass‐and‐steel bridges—an homage to the neighborhood’s history as a center for shipping and commerce.
This new workplace 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. Source by SHoP Architects.
Location: Mission Bay, San Francisco, USA
Architects: SHoP Architects, Studio O+A
Phase: Design Development
Area: 423,000 SF
Year: 2015
Images: Courtesy of SHoP Architects
