Highly anticipated at the time of opening, Sightglass Coffee’s flagship café with production roaster occupies a 7,500 sq. ft. building in San Francisco's SOMA district—the first of our many projects with Sightglass. The owners’ vision was twofold—to create transparency and openness between the café and roaster functions, and to establish a neighborhood cornerstone that could help ground the area as it evolves.

We designed the airy industrial interior with purity of spatial experience in mind; as an homage to coffee culture and collaborative artistry. Highly crafted, the new infrastructure and architectural elements are intentionally minimalist and subtle in their response to the original shell—to emphasize materiality and meticulous detail.

The seamless indoor/outdoor flow fosters connection between the interior and street life, and the open, intertwined service and roaster areas enable guests to be in the midst of the entire coffee-making sequence—with the gorgeous Probat at its hub.

In a truly collective construction process with the contractor and talented craftsmen—all longtime collaborators on Studio BBA projects—we were able to realize some distinctive, one-of-a-kind features. Each contributed their creativity and expertise—from recreating the Japanese art of Shou-sugi-ban for a decorative burnt wood siding treatment, to piecing together over 38 reclaimed steel joist hangers for a custom light fixture.