Open Platform: Treating weighty materials with a light hand, a local design team transforms a former warehouse into a communal workspace for cloud developers.
The cloud has an image problem. The term — which refers to the distributed networks of servers that store data and power all kinds of Internet services — gets tossed around a lot, but it doesn't evoke much beyond a vague nimbus of Amazon orders and MP3 files.
Take it from the top: A new center for jazz in San Franciso was designed by Mark Cavagnero Associates to invite the public in for more than musical riffs.
As a latecomer to San Francisco's performing-arts district, SFJAZZ, a 30-year-old concert series, had to figure out how to fit into the Hayes Valley neighborhood.
Program: A 44,330-square-foot 32-unit townhouse and apartment complex in downtown San Francisco designed for middle-income and first-time homebuyers. The below-market-rate condos, priced between $150,000 and $375,000, are part of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency's Limited Equity Program. Amenities include parking, patios, and a landscaped garden. Design concept and solution: The complex is located in San Francisco's cultural district with neighboring public transportation and numerous restaurants. In a nod to the nearby cultural offerings, the complex's interior courtyard, designed by landscape architect Fletcher Studio, prominently features a curved concrete planter shaped like one of Kurt Cobain's famous guitars. The frame of
A 3,500-square-foot office for the nonprofit Taproot Foundation, an organization that connects resource-strapped nonprofits with businesses willing to offer pro bono services.
Low energy use was a particular priority for the Triskelion, a 1,300-square-foot moveable pavilion commissioned by the nonprofit arts organization FOR-SITE. Designed by Ogrydziak/Prillinger Architects, San Francisco, the building consists of three shipping containers arranged at 120-degree angles to define a central skylit atrium. Since May 2010 it has been installed at the Presidio, where it was part of the yearlong Presidio Habitats'an exhibition of artist-created animal habitats distributed around one corner of the national park. The pavilion served as a space for the display of sketches and models. Because Presidio officials required that the building be easily demountable and
The house began its life in 1949 as a modest four-room row house on one of the steepest streets in San Francisco’s Noe Valley. Dramatically expanded with two new floor levels, the building is now home to an active family of five with ample space for guests, parties, and projects.
Polishing a Hidden Gem: A radical makeover brings visibility to a new restaurant tucked away in an obscure corner of the city, while maintaining a sense of discovery for diners.
Just a few years ago, the idea of planting a hip, upscale restaurant on a sleepy alley in San Francisco's China Basin neighborhood might have seemed nuts.
Imaginative Environments and surface patterning are essential for the offices of 'ber-hip high-tech companies where youthful, creative employees work long hours.
Owner: Obscura Digital Completion Date: December 2010 (main interior), July 2011 (ScreenWall) Program: A three-story, 36,000-square-foot headquarters for an interactive media company, with a large multifunctional showroom and exhibition area, prototyping workshop spaces, workstations for digital production, offices, and a conference room. The project is an adaptive reuse of a 1940s concrete and steel-frame warehouse in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco. IwamotoScott's office shares the building, with an office on the second floor. Design concept and solution: The architects set out to give Obscura Digital a raw yet more refined version of their previous headquarters, a warehouse on Bryant