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  • THUMBTACK HQ

    SOMA, SAN FRANCISCO THUMBTACK HQ SOMA, SAN FRANCISCO Thumbtack was committed to staying in its ‘hood of origin—South of Market (SOMA)—as it grows and goes global, and entrusted Studio BBA to advise them on their move from the get-go. We assisted with site evaluation/selection, helping them find a just-renovated, warm shell building that fit their start-up budget and desired industrial aesthetic. We then transitioned into providing full tenant improvement services for both architecture and interiors, custom furniture design and production management, and ongoing interior and graphic design services. The term “office” doesn’t suit the Thumbtack culture – their product is a welcoming interface, their HQ feels like a studio, and the people who work there are like family. To match this tone Studio BBA took a ‘residential-ized’ design approach to the space, and striking a balance between individual and ‘family’ needs. Their friendly atmosphere is made evident from the ground floor with fully visible public spaces: greet, meet and play areas, the lunchroom, bar and phone booths, and a commercial kitchen well-equipped for producing the lovingly prepared meals shared by staff daily. A bike parking ‘lounge’ is nested in the stairwell for security. Open space planning on the 2nd 3rd and 4th floor work areas provides individual desks as well as designated spaces for collaboration including informal meeting rooms with sliding glass doors, and small code caves set-up for side-by-side work. The multiple ‘living rooms’ and lounge spaces throughout each have their own character and color story. Furnishings are a mix of local, retail and contract furniture, designed and chosen for pragmatics and comfort. Studio BBA designs include the reception desk, and the “wide-hex” meeting tables that merge the communal nature of a circular table with the ergonomic efficiency of straight edges. Back to Projects page Client Thumbtack BBA Team Bonnie Bridges David Ornvold Anand Sheth Size 23,200 SF Contractor Matarozzi Pelsinger Builders Collaborators Architect of Record: Costa-Brown Architecture Reception Desk Fabricator: Chris French Conference Table Fabricator: MASH Studios Photography Bruce Damonte Back to top

  • THE MILL

    SAN FRANCISCO THE MILL SAN FRANCISCO The Mill is a new joint venture café, from the hearts, minds and hands of Josey Baker Bread and Fourbarrel Coffee . In the collaborative spirit of much of Studio BBA’s work, the making of The Mill was a true collective design and construction process. The target inspiration for this design was “everyone’s first San Francisco kitchen” – that initial bright, messy, warm space that came with your first real apartment. It was probably at the very end of long Victorian, maybe in The Mission. It probably had good light even though the laundry porch was in the way. It was where all your friends crammed together during parties, and the place you probably spent the most time on weekend mornings. A mixed palette of woods—white oak, doug fir and ash—with white-on-white finishes is inspired by, and meant to inspire the feel of, the welcoming, homestyle kitchen. Natural light filters from the multiple skylights through the ceiling beams to the café tables, and is concentrated over the bakery and barista work area through a custom light soffit. Reclaimed douglas fir cabinetry and white wall tile both follow a herringbone pattern, subtly articulating the space. Back to Projects page Client The Mill BBA Team Bonnie Bridges Seth Boor Sarah Fucinaro Size 2,300 SF Contractor Roman Hunt, Jeremy Tooker & Crew Collaborators Millworker: Alex Palecko Photography Bruce Damonte Back to top

  • FARMERS & MERCHANTS BUILDING DTLA

    LOS ANGELES FARMERS & MERCHANTS BUILDING DTLA LOS ANGELES Studio BBA provided comprehensive architecture and interiors services for this adaptive reuse project—redeveloping the historic, long-abandoned Farmers & Merchants building in downtown LA’s Old Bank District into our client’s vision for a fantastic, new kind of dining emporium. With the building’s character and significance as our muse, we designed artful, structural and strategic interventions that would restore its glory and distinction for modern patrons. Entirely dedicated to the experience of enjoying food and drink, the interior offers a range of refined and casual environments. The main floor is a seamless integration of new and old, featuring the emporium’s flagship bakery and café near its main entry, and a central horseshoe bar with custom deck-mounted lighting gracefully anchoring the open plan. The fine dining restaurant has both communal and intimate seating; serviced in the front-of-house by an open kitchen, meat room and wine storage. A new 1,600 sq. ft. mezzanine borders the triple-height atrium, providing a singular vantage point of the grand volume. The existing second floor was redesigned with a speakeasy feel and flexible use in mind—the corner bar, cool lounge areas and three dining rooms can be used as restaurant overflow or for private events. Above it all, a restored 300-panel, vaulted skylight is engineered with natural and artificial lighting options. The expansive back-of-house is in a connected but separate building, through no small effort to resolve the structural and systems challenges. Nostalgia and authenticity are expressed throughout with well-considered materials and finishes. Historic preservation elements include moldings, pilasters, the mosaic floor, distressed plaster and the original “Verde” marble cladding. Sophisticated new finishes include brass inlaid tile, exposed steel and concrete, custom millwork, black steel, and walnut. Studio BBA specified complete furniture and decorative lighting packages to complete the tactile, rich environment. The primary complexities of rehabilitating this building centered on the need to introduce and integrate completely new systems in a structure where modern systems had never existed (mechanical, electrical, plumbing, structural, circulation, ADA, exits, fire separation). Through rigorous and thoughtful collaboration with expert engineers, consultants, preservationists and city agencies, Studio BBA arrived at a systems approach that worked for all parties. Back to Projects page Client Tartine LA, LLC BBA Team Bonnie Bridges Seth Boor Anand Sheth Size 19,719 SF Contractor Howard CDM Collaborators MEP: Henderson Engineers Structural: John Labib & Associates Acoustic/AV Consultant: FYXX Entertainment, Inc. Lighting: Hiram Banks Lighting Design Photography None Back to top

  • TARTINE BERKELEY

    BERKELEY TARTINE BERKELEY BERKELEY Tartine Berkeley is in the historic Graduate Hotel, a Spanish Colonial style building from 1928. Over the years, the space has evolved from a floral shop, into a sunroom, and now a feature bakery. Studio BBA was engaged to design Tartine’s fifth Bay Area restaurant while we were constructing The Manufactory LA and designing Tartine Inner Sunset , allowing for the emergent process of design to shape this new space. The building’s story, like all of Studio BBA’s work for Tartine, was a main inspirational driver for the design. There is nothing to “roll out” and no mandates on continuity, only the desire to approach our circumstances with strategy and authenticity. Sunrooms are filled with clay tiles and potted plants, garden furniture and wrought-iron, and beautiful light casts over white-washed structures. Tartine Berkeley’s layout achieves internal function while providing maximum visibility through the existing multi-paned windows. Dialed-in millwork consists of heavy cypress, refined zinc (an incidental carry-over from the utilitarian dining rooms in LA), and custom steel and glass. The café’s lounge seating, detailed with traditional wood paneling and elevated furniture, is only accessible through the hotel’s lobby; the flow between spaces is intentionally disconnected, as the change in floor elevation infringed on accessibility requirements. Studio BBA took this challenge head-on, to create engaging spaces for people of all mobilities and adhere strictly to the ADA (which was born just one block away, on UC Berkeley’s campus). An articulated drink pass was reinstated during construction to provide functionality and visual continuity between the café & lounge. To reinforce the sunroom design elements, the space features custom hanging metal bread racks and precious ceramic planters. The back of house is just as considered – organized and oriented to be washed with light through façade windows and skylights. Back to Projects page Client Tartine Bakery BBA Team Bonnie Bridges Anand Sheth Size 1,500 SF Contractor Echo Summit Construction Collaborators MEP: Acies Engineering Lighting: Hiram Banks Lighting Design Kitchen Equipment: Myers Food Service Photography Eric Rorer Photography Back to top

  • TARTINE INNER SUNSET

    SAN FRANCISCO TARTINE INNER SUNSET SAN FRANCISCO Tartine Inner Sunset was instantly inspired by The Park, we have occupied the gardens ourselves for many years in many ways. This restaurant serves as the perfect post-park picnic – a hospitable extension of the constructed natural resource that anchors the neighborhood. The entry sequence is purely romantic – like entering Golden Gate Park, it’s the way “in” that sets the tone for your journey. Patrons enter through an existing roll-up door (relic) into an open-air walled garden with an aperture through the ceiling (surprise). Indoor vs. outdoor is a construct we don’t need – so we use every visual and tactile clue to blur the boundary: high ceilings and various skylights add loftiness to the greenhouse and are grounded by exterior tongue-and-groove siding and polished concrete floors. Studio BBA was engaged to design Tartine’s fourth Bay Area restaurant while we were constructing The Manufactory LA , allowing for the emergent process of design to shape this new space (a former roofing warehouse with a rich history ). We are continuing to iterate these ideas within their next location in Berkeley, in construction now. There is nothing to “roll out” and no mandates on continuity, only the desire to approach our circumstances with strategy and authenticity. New custom elements relate via a play on white, with accenting materials pulled from The Sunset District. White factory-sash storefronts, sliding doors and the one-off pastry case evoke a greenhouse’s utility, and subtly nod to the custom details we developed for the Manufactory LA. Black & white terrazzo is ubiquitous in the neighborhood, used on stoops and window sills all over, and now used in the restaurant as counters and custom furniture. The back of house is as important; the intricately dialed-in details are flooded with natural light. Vibrant poppy-colored tile is installed to reference terracotta planters filled with California’s flora. Back to Projects page Client Tartine Bakery BBA Team Bonnie Bridges Megan McGuinn Size 2,958 SF Contractor Echo Summit Construction Collaborators MEP: Acies Engineering Structural: Degenkolb KEC: Myers Rest. Supply, Inc. Photography Eric Rorer Photography Back to top

  • TARTINE MANUFACTORY LA

    LOS ANGELES TARTINE MANUFACTORY LA LOS ANGELES The vast, two-story SoCal abode we’ve designed for Tartine Manufactory DTLA houses an ecosystem of high-volume artisanal food and beverage concepts, including food production, restaurants, cafes and a marketplace under one umbrella. Occupying an entire building at ROW DTLA in LA’s Arts District, the site has ties to Tartine’s value for local ingredients and farmers as it was originally home to the LA Terminal Market—the center of produce distribution across the region. Through adaptive reuse efforts, it’s now 30+-acres of historic buildings and gardens reborn as a place for culture, retail, eateries, innovation and creativity. Inspired by the intrinsic connection between place-making, process and service, our design team’s approach was to balance the magnitude of the industrial building, with its high ceilings and huge windows, with modern, human-scaled pavilion-like elements that are distinct but interrelated. The Tartine Craft Bakery + Mill is the company’s regional headquarters for Los Angeles bread and pastry production and distribution for which we designed an architectural framework for the large equipment and chose a palette of refined, tactile, utilitarian materials. The highly visible, full-scale operations are punctuated by custom displays of tools and goods to highlight the baking process. Several mills and a grain silo are located in the basement level, as well as a huge coffee roastery using direct trade-purchased beans in collaboration with Califia Farms. A sunken exterior patio flanks one side of the bakery allowing for visual access into the basement coffee roastery, and a gateway into “The Narrows”—a communal alley boasting outdoor seating for each establishment. Across the shared central kitchen is an expansive marketplace with restaurant and ice cream shop. For the small market we were inspired by the circumstantial charm of an urban apartment pantry. Custom display shelving and lighting emphasize the curated selection of seasonal produce, gourmet foods and artful kitchen goods. The casual, accessible, boisterous market restaurant features a related palette to that of the bakery, and is designed with areas that cater to both lingering meals and hastier bites. Tartine’s Cookies+Cream is an ice cream shop and café, oriented toward a large transaction window, allowing for quick service and giving patrons proximity to the café seating along an elevated catwalk. An oasis of its own, Coffee Lab is an experimental station where coffee enthusiasts can witness the roasting process and taste micro-lot coffees. We purposefully separated the Lab from the bustling complex in an elegant jewel box where patrons can stay to interact with the experimenters or enjoy their coffee at the outdoor patio’s custom sculptural drink rail surrounded by coffee plants. Naturally varied mosaic tile serves as a backdrop to the sample roaster and custom wall of archival cabinetry. Large roll-up doors open onto the building’s breezeway and encourage a sense of discovery in the entry sequence. Continuing down “The Narrows” a densely planted trellis canopy marks the entry to the dinner restaurant, another collaboration of Tartine and Bianco. Our design alludes to the enchanting qualities of a kitchen garden—the intimate exterior bar and dining room are filled with aromatic herbs and colorful citrus while the warm, familiar dining rooms provide homes for the chef’s father’s oil paintings and other curios. Back to Projects page Client Tartine Bakery BBA Team Bonnie Bridges Seth Boor Anand Sheth Size 38,500 SF Contractor Howard CDM Collaborators Architect of Record: House & Robertson Architects Associate Architect: Osvaldo Maiozzi Photography Jakob Layman Karyn Millet Back to top

  • STONEMILL MATCHA

    SAN FRANCISCO STONEMILL MATCHA SAN FRANCISCO Stonemill Matcha engaged Studio BBA to design their first tea café location in the U.S. market—for our focus on creating architecture that inspires authentic customer experiences, as well as our expertise in destination café design. Like the Japanese tea ceremony itself, our design centered on the spirit of transformation and translation, and imparting a mindful experience. The resulting aesthetic is a deep and purposeful melding of two cultures and of function and beauty—with finishes and a composition grounded in Japanese traditional design and ritual, in a space infused with local flavor. In particular, Stonemill Matcha’s private tea room blossomed into an exceptionally special place for San Francisco—exuding materiality, tradition, serenity and calm. Soft lighting cascades over the surfaces, and a washi art installation by Eriko Horiki graces the back wall. Before we began the project it was critical to the Stonemill owners that we experience the art of the ancient tea ceremony at its source; to truly understand the ritual and its embodiment. We were invited to Japan and given the opportunity to immerse ourselves in the culture: attending modern, historic and combination ceremonies, staying at a historic Ryokan, meditating in a Kyoto temple, and delighting in the local arts, stores and restaurants. Through our schematic design process we distilled these influences into a totem of sorts, representing to us the idea of these two cultures coming together—a matchstick. The matchstick was chosen for its essential component properties of wood, extruded square, orthogonal strength and scalability, and was used in conceptual modeling for the café’s spatial elements. Back to Projects page Client Stonemill Matcha BBA Team Bonnie Bridges Megan McGuinn Size 2,580 SF Contractor ACI General Contractors Collaborators Styling: Nicole Taramibuchi Photography Mariko Reed Back to top

  • STRIPE - CHINA BASIN

    SAN FRANCISCO STRIPE - CHINA BASIN SAN FRANCISCO Casual, human-scaled, residential-style workspaces are key design elements that have shaped the work we have done with Stripe over the last three years – such as their former HQ at the Pioneer Trunk Factory – where the historic timber building played a key role in their aesthetics and culture. Fast forward to 2016, their rapid growth (a unicorn in tech) demanded much larger space. We provided property evaluation services during the long and arduous search, culminating in one of the largest lease deals of the year – 300,000 SF on Townsend Street – in an entitled, but not yet built space that was two years out (had not even broken ground when they signed the lease). Unable to stay at the beloved HQ during this two-year period, they subleased a space at China Basin from the previous tenant, Dropbox HQ – a space we designed in 2013 – for an interim move. Given our insights into Stripe’s culture and the desire to make their interim transition as smooth as possible, they engaged us to re-design Dropbox’s 105,000 SF. We kept many of the well-appointed design elements (solid walnut paneling, copper bars, commercial kitchen) at the same time transforming the context from boastful masculine to gender fluid and achieve a holistic feel with an artful combination of new, old and inherited. To humanize the huge, 85,000 SF 4th floor, we introduced three new thresholds that are abstractions of money – barter, coin, and digital. In addition to the thresholds, we humanized the space by creating residential-scaled nooks and break out spaces for small group collaborations. Via complete architecture and interior design services including programming, FFE and sourcing and curation of art and accessories, we created a Stripe culture. Examples of this include meeting rooms furnished with sofas, armchairs, end tables and lamps, and tactile finishes, new light fixtures and a warm color palette (versus table and chairs, one accent wall and overhead lighting). The artwork for each area is themed with a different animal—yes there’s a skunk and a sloth. And Stripe amiably insisted on bringing the hanging globe sculpture that Studio BBA staff handmade for the former HQ, which now lights their new library. For companies at this stage of rapid growth, there are fundamental design challenges to balance caution and budget-conscious thinking with the founding freedom and energy. We were able to help Stripe make this transition gracefully by using resourceful design strategies to successfully translate their core culture values into an interim space, all within a tight budget and a compressed schedule. To support the future evolution of Stripe’s human centered environment, we implemented a series of Beta tests (to be used in the Townsend space) such as mobile teleconferencing, genius bar for IT support, and circadian rhythm lighting for the open office areas. Back to Projects page Client Stripe BBA Team Bonnie Bridges Anand Sheth Size 105,000 SF Contractor Principal Builders Collaborators Lighting: Hiram Banks Photography Jasper Sanidad Back to top

  • SIGHTGLASS COFFEE

    SOMA, SAN FRANCISCO SIGHTGLASS COFFEE SOMA, SAN FRANCISCO 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. Back to Projects page Client Sightglass Coffee BBA Team Bonnie Bridges Seth Boor Size 7,500 SF Contractor Kevin Smith Collaborators MEP: MHC Engineers Structural: Semco Engineering Photography Bruce Damonte Studio BBA Back to top

  • SIGHTGLASS SFMOMA

    DOWNTOWN, SAN FRANCISCO SIGHTGLASS SFMOMA DOWNTOWN, SAN FRANCISCO Our longstanding relationship with Sightglass Coffee continues at SFMOMA, with a café that intervenes where the gestural, formal Snøhetta expansion meets the pure, symmetrical, geometric volumes of the Botta interior. It was an immense pleasure to design at the intersection of this larger aesthetic conversation. We took the opportunity to create an original, site-specific solution for this Sightglass, deviating from the local architectural brand we developed for their first two locations. By playfully twisting the café’s main façade—using curvaceous custom concrete panels around a strict symmetry—the design fills our given niche while mingling with the surrounding museum interior. The curved façade also fulfills a demand for highly efficient service areas, in response to the café’s small footprint and high-volume location. A palette of concrete, natural maple, blackened steel and soft museum white reflects the refined modernity of the transformed museum, and features custom designed and fabricated elements including the bar and light fixtures. Back to Projects page Client Sightglass Coffee BBA Team Seth Boor Bonnie Bridges Anand Sheth Size 390 SF Contractor Architect of Record: EHDD Associate Architect: Snøhetta Collaborators Fabricator: Concreteworks Millwork: Acosta & Sons Inc Photography F. Jason Campbell Back to top

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