{"id":189670,"date":"2021-11-03T11:17:27","date_gmt":"2021-11-03T15:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/?post_type=id_project&p=189670"},"modified":"2022-11-11T15:08:03","modified_gmt":"2022-11-11T20:08:03","slug":"huntsman-pfau-long-rmw-and-shop-deliver-a-five-star-campus-for-uber-headquarters-in-san-francisco","status":"publish","type":"id_project","link":"https:\/\/interiordesign.net\/projects\/huntsman-pfau-long-rmw-and-shop-deliver-a-five-star-campus-for-uber-headquarters-in-san-francisco\/","title":{"rendered":"Huntsman, Pfau Long, RMW, and SHoP Deliver a Five-Star Campus for Uber Headquarters in San Francisco"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\"Uber
In building two of Uber\u2019s San Francisco headquarters, a 23-acre, a four-building complex with architecture by Pfau Long and SHoP Architects and interiors by Huntsman Architectural Group and RMW, the latter two firms also overseeing the master plan, powder-coated aluminum fronts the plaster enclosure of the ground-floor events space.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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November 3, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n

Words: <\/span>Edie Cohen<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photography: <\/span>Eric Laignel<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Huntsman, Pfau Long, RMW, and SHoP Deliver a Five-Star Campus for Uber Headquarters in San Francisco<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been 12 years since Uber disrupted the transportation system with its ride-hailing technology that\u2019s now ubiquitous. Today, the company proves itself another disruptor, this time in workplace architecture and design. Uber\u2019s new San Francisco headquarters is a consortium of four towers, not by one or even two firms, but four internationally renowned studios. Like dating, Uber paired them in a harmonious match. For MB1 and MB2, Uber\u2019s first commissioned ground-up headquarters, SHoP Architects<\/a> conceived the original building plan, and then RMW<\/a> came aboard for interiors. Huntsman Architectural Group<\/a> was mainly responsible for the interiors of MB3 and MB4, originally created on spec by Pfau Long<\/a> (which has since merged with Perkins&Will<\/a>). Then Huntsman and RMW collaborated with Uber on the campus master plan. MB, by the way, stands for Mission Bay, the city\u2019s burgeoning, formerly industrial neighborhood. As for stats: MB1 is 11 stories, MB2 seven, including the partially enclosed rooftop, and buildings three and four rise 11 stories each. All told, interiors total just over 1 million square feet and will eventually bring together some 6,000 staffers. \u201cWe saw this as an opportunity to unite employees within a campus setting rather than have them scattered throughout the city,\u201d begins Uber director of workplace and real estate Tracie Kelly, who worked alongside project executive Michael Huaco, Uber\u2019s VP of global real estate. As for the design teams? \u201cIt was a happy marriage,\u201d Huntsman associate principal Nicole Everett reflects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A stadium stair connects two floors in building four.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On a grand scale, Uber is conceived as a micro-city, one within and connected to the urban area at large where the two pairs of towers align. This micro-city breaks down into boroughs signified by the towers, communities analogous to floors, and neighborhoods as sig\u00adnaled by teams. It\u2019s a broad organizational device allowing for\u2014and encouraging\u2014qualities of contributing to a \u201csense of place bring\u00ading people together to a positive environment,\u201d Alison Woolf, also a Huntsman associate principal, notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus everyone, no matter where their location, experiences a shared panoply of indoor-outdoor junctions: public spaces, collaboration areas, and quiet zones in the form of libraries, wellness facilities, terraces, caf\u00e9s, and break rooms\u2014specifically designed to be communal and active, or focused and calm. Each pair of buildings shares an approximately 30,000-square-foot cafeteria, supplemented by four coffee bars. All together the setting offers a work-from-anywhere scenario, albeit one with dedicated workstations, indicative of an autonomous office paradigm. The fact that each environment presents a uniquely textured fabric induces folks to interconnect and continuously explore the entire campus\u2014much as they would San Francisco\u2019s heterogenous streetscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n