Search this site
Results found for empty search
- SIGHTGLASS ON 20TH | Studio BBA Architects | Studio BBA Architects
MISSION, SAN FRANCISCO | Master List SIGHTGLASS ON 20TH MISSION, SAN FRANCISCO Light-filled, airy and bustling, Studio BBA’s design for Sightglass on 20th offers the comfort of an old-world café with the distilled simplicity of a sailboat cabin. We chose a refined material palette of marble, plaster, teak and dark brass to warm the double-height industrial warehouse space, while continuing the purity of spatial experience inherent in their design of Sightglass SOMA . Studio BBA custom-designed almost every detail in this café—fixtures, hardware, displays, finishes—envisioning a close-knit family of intricately detailed elements that reference each other, but each have their own iteration. Three custom chandeliers define the customer and employee zones, and draw the eye up toward the redwood sapwood ceiling’s chevron pattern, which was subtly introduced in the steel entry door design. Detailing of the niches for merchandise display and music equipment relate to woodwork in the bar and seating areas. The brass pastry case is a jewelry box of sorts, custom crafted and placed at standing height for optimal visibility and access. The café’s layout nestles all its programmatic elements efficiently, including a full-production roastery with vintage Probat roaster that roasts enough to serve and sell on site, inventively designed espresso and pour-over coffee bars and customer circulation that facilitates optimal flow. The sinuous, cushioned banquette wraps the perimeter, providing for all seating needs: outward-facing single spots for people-watching, intimate nooks to share, and a group area. Studio BBA used a mock-up with sliding parts to determine the ideal dimensions for each seating area. From initial concept through construction observation, Studio BBA’s role included space planning, coordination with city agencies, and collaboration with the fabricators, baristas and general contractor. Client Sightglass Coffee BBA Team Seth Boor Bonnie Bridges Anand Sheth Size 950 SF Contractor SmithBuilt Collaborators Structural: Tim O'Sullivan Structural Design Photography Matthew Millman Studio BBA Back to Projects page Back to top
- LORD STANLEY | Studio BBA Architects | Studio BBA Architects
SAN FRANCISCO | Master List LORD STANLEY SAN FRANCISCO This new restaurant will be a welcoming, informal, cozy, comfortable space in which to share meals. Proprietors and chefs (and charming married couple) Carrie Puffer Blease and Rupert Blease aim to ensure that guests leave the restaurant with a feeling of well-being, satisfaction and nourishment from their surroundings as well as their meal. Studio BBA approached the design in keeping with this aim, and in synchronicity with the chefs’ approach to food—naturally elegant, carefully thought out, amazing ingredients and a lack of complication. We peeled away unnecessary layers in the two-story space to expose its simple raw beauty, and its tall north and east facing windows. A few minimal but interesting, honest and homey insertions were added to set the tone for the restaurant: a new front door with “Welcome” stenciled into the sidewalk, a poured concrete floor, a white custom-textured concrete bar, a modern steel railing, a sculptural lighting installation and custom wood tables. The owners commission their personal friend, textile artist Ashley Helvey , to create a wall-mounted felt piece with the texture of fur. Client Lord Stanley BBA Team Bonnie Bridges Seth Boor Sarah Fucinaro Size 1,050 SF Contractor Upcycle Builders Collaborators Textile Installation: Ashley Helvey Photography Nick Ruiz Back to Projects page Back to top
- FARMERS & MERCHANTS BUILDING DTLA | Studio BBA Architects | Studio BBA Architects
LOS ANGELES | Master List 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. 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 Projects page Back to top
- DROPBOX HQ | Studio BBA Architects | Studio BBA Architects
SAN FRANCISCO | Master List DROPBOX HQ SAN FRANCISCO Our design for this young company’s new 70,000 sq. ft. China Basin headquarters provides flexibility for their fast-growing business, while introducing innovative approaches to urban workplace density. If cubicles are the suburbs then our approach to Dropbox HQ is downtown, with their core product as the design inspiration. The company’s new workspace a simple, well-executed container that maximizes functionality and allows for customization without compromising honest aesthetics. Our design reiterates our belief that all spaces – particularly the all-too-often neglected office – deserve real materials and attentive, appropriately-scaled interventions. The primary challenge of this design was to continue the charged and collaborative newsroom feel of the company’s former open office space, while planning for projected growth that could more than quadruple staff. Wrapping the existing building core, a nearly 1,600 ft. continuous circulation loop provides daylight and views to the entire office. The open space plan is organized to be approachable but intensively active and vibrant. Team groupings of open workstations and centralized social spaces line the glazed perimeter, interspersed with shared work rooms, interview and meeting spaces, and informal lounges. The scale and placement of the work groups provides team unity and isolated acoustics, while still maintaining views to neighboring groups to achieve the company’s desire that everyone maintain a connection to overall density. Specific auxiliary spaces include: phone, break, game, music, server, gym, kitchen, and dining. Client Dropbox BBA Team Bonnie Bridges Seth Boor Sarah Fucinaro Size 70,000 SF Contractor Skyline Construction Collaborators Interiors: Geremia Design Photography Bruce Damonte Studio BBA Back to Projects page Back to top
- RITUAL COFFEE ROASTERS OXBOW | Studio BBA Architects | Studio BBA Architects
NAPA | Master List RITUAL COFFEE ROASTERS OXBOW NAPA When Ritual Roasters was asked to be the local coffee purveyor for Napa’s Oxbow Public Market, owner Eileen Hassi in turn invited Studio BBA to be the designer. Ritual was a natural addition to the artisanal and organic bounty at this site of foodie pilgrimage—“The Local Gathering Place for Great Food and Wine in Napa Valley”. The modern café pavilion we created is an efficient, highly functional 280 sq. ft. work and service space that brings design value to work for business, melding concepts from Ritual’s history and brand with the history and aesthetic of marketplaces. With a visual presence that exceeds its small footprint, the pavilion is designed to showcase the art of the barista’s coffee making with an air of theatricality. The coffee bar counter—made from an old local pea farm’s tamarack timbers—provides a gracious front row seat while underscoring the Market’s regional, farm-direct focus. One of the early examples of Studio BBA’s deep expertise in coffee retail and café design, we first worked with Ritual on our design for their kiosk at Flora Grubb Gardens, then designed their San Francisco roaster production and training facility. Client Ritual Coffee BBA Team Seth Boor Bonnie Bridges Size 280 SF Contractor Terra Nova Industries Collaborators Woodworking: Stephen C. O'Brien Photography Bruce Damonte Back to Projects page Back to top
- GALVANIZE CAFÉ | Studio BBA Architects | Studio BBA Architects
SAN FRANCISCO | Master List GALVANIZE CAFÉ SAN FRANCISCO A welcoming, sophisticated hub of connection, the Galvanize café/bar and reception areas provide space for their members and strategic partners to intermingle with the public, for informal collaborations, community gatherings and chance meetings. Studio BBA designed the environment as a modern, refined presence in the midst of a well-kept warehouse shell, with white-washed white oak floors and counters, indigo-dyed solid oak panels and natural steel. The super-sized parallelogram bar acts as a frame for the lobby’s open space and engages with the casual seating areas, while maximizing customer flow and providing ample barista stations. To maintain a reference to the building’s past industrial use, we created a family of custom metal hardware components for the café table legs and bar supports. Other, more subtle, details also reference the pre-existing character, such as the bar’s countersunk screws patterned like rivets—but executed with an elegant brass finish in keeping with the new, clean aesthetic. A large custom, chevron-shaped communal stone sink accommodates accessibility requirements in the washroom, anchoring the space. Client Galvanize BBA Team Bonnie Bridges Anand Sheth Size 2,250 SF Contractor Skyline Construction Collaborators Metalworker: Soldesign Lab Photography Nicholas V. Ruiz Back to Projects page Back to top
- THUMBTACK HQ MARKET STREET | Studio BBA Architects | Studio BBA Architects
MARKET, SAN FRANCISCO | Master List THUMBTACK HQ MARKET STREET MARKET, SAN FRANCISCO Well-organized, open, food centric and friendly. These attributes—based on Thumbtack’s office culture—shape all the workplace environments we create for the company. Our brand-infused design approach is adapted for each new location, using curated moments specific to the built context and region. We have worked as part of the same architecture and construction team on all three of Thumbtack’s build-outs, now a well-oiled machine: the previous HQ, Utah Campus and this HQ . Thumbtack’s rapid growth and expansion plans instigated their move to this much larger space—the entire 6th floor of 1355 Market in SF’s Mid-Market tech district. Meeting the aggressive 5-month timeline and limited budget for this space demanded a massive undertaking by everyone involved. The previous tenant left a well-appointed build-out, which enabled us to re-purpose some elements and focus the budget on a few strategic moves. But it also posed challenges—mainly how to shift the vibe from an existing starkness to the casual, tactile, familial atmosphere that would feel like home to Thumbtack. Focusing on flow and finishes for the public areas, we sourced new furniture and lighting throughout. In the employee dining area we enlivened and warmed up the mood by adding a strong geometric tile face to the main food service station, maple butcher block as the food prep surfaces, and wood enclosures to hide the kitchen equipment. In the work areas we developed seven neighborhoods of 30-50 workstations in relation to the company’s seven core markets: events, home, lessons, wellness, business, crafts, design and web. Thresholds and furnishings were placed to delineate and abstractly reflect these sectors. Strong trust and complimentary roles are the foundation of our great, collaborative relationship with Thumbtack—addressing the owners’ needs with Studio BBA’s vision and design objectives. Client Thumbtack BBA Team Bonnie Bridges Anand Sheth Size 80,000 SF Contractor Principal Builders Collaborators Project Manager: CRE Group Furniture: Inside Source Photography Jasper Sanidad Back to Projects page Back to top
- EQUATOR MILL VALLEY | Studio BBA Architects | Studio BBA Architects
MILL VALLEY | Master List EQUATOR MILL VALLEY MILL VALLEY Studio BBA’s concept for this historic town square café draws on the area’s rustic and natural energy and connects to the vibrant street life, while reflecting the refined character of Equator Coffees and Teas. Expanding on elements we used at the Equator Prooflab location, our Mill Valley café design deepens the company’s brick-and-mortar brand palette with the warmth of salvaged redwood, balanced by concrete, plaster, tile and copper, and accented by ‘Equator red’. We capitalized on existing high ceilings in the storefront to feature a 27-point light array, half of which suspends down to reveal the fixtures’ slip-cast concrete texture. To further integrate Mill Valley’s history, Studio BBA designed a table of redwood and salvaged railroad rails for the outdoor seating area. Client Equator Coffees BBA Team Bonnie Bridges Sarah Fucinaro Size 950 SF Contractor Dan Dafoe Collaborators MEP: MHC Engineers Photography Nicholas V. Ruiz Back to Projects page Back to top
- FOUNDER'S INC. EXPANSION | Studio BBA Architects | Studio BBA Architects
San Francisco, CA | Master List FOUNDER'S INC. EXPANSION San Francisco, CA When our repeat client Founders, Inc. (F.inc) needed to expand their Fort Mason campus, they came back to us with a familiar challenge: create a space that serves the full spectrum of a founder's day. F.inc backs the next generation of entrepreneurs building in AI/ML, hardware, AR/VR, Web3, and emerging tech—and their growing community needed a space that could flex from daily communal lunches to hackathons, lectures, and focused heads-down work. The expansion begins with an immersive entry hall washed in deep teal—a deliberate threshold that signals you're stepping into something different. The intrigue of the darkness draws you in before the space opens up to the vaulted ceilings and delicate historic touches mirrored in their original space. You move into a tone-on-tone color-drenched coffee bar with custom millwork counters, cypress island, and blue-stained cabinets—the social engine of the campus. This is where founders refill their espresso, linger, and find the kind of pause that leads to conversation, collaboration, and ideation. For large lectures and events, this space flexes into a host station and check-in, acting as a final threshold before entering the multi-purpose great room beyond. The multi-purpose room opens bright and expansive, complemented by the dramatic vaulted ceilings and Golden Gate Bridge views—a flexible canvas built for collective learning and the energy of community. Redundant stage lighting is provided for 3 different stage locations on overhead tracks allows the space to shift from everyday work mode to full presentation setup. A large storage room allows the team to swap furniture seamlessly, transforming the space from lunch hall to lecture seating to a hackathon setup. Strategic furniture placement creates distinct zones within the open floor plan: lounge areas offer places to sit with a friend, share work on a laptop, or step back and let an idea breathe. A custom wall-mounted desk runs continuously along the west wall, supporting focused work with those sweeping Bay views. Unistrut is hung as an armature for drapes, backdrops, and screens to subdivide the space when needed, providing acoustic privacy without compromising the airy feel. This room is designed for the kind of human connection that pushes ideas further. The break room gives founders a place to grab lunch or a snack without breaking flow, but also flexes into a catering kitchen behind closed doors for passed appetizers to intimate dinners. A private office provides a quieter setting for focused work or meetings that need a door. The green room—connected to the great room through a large repurposed glass storefront window and door from F.inc's adjacent space—serves as a retreat for guest speakers before they step on stage. The Green Room is also fitted out with acoustic treatment so it can also be a backdrop for podcast recordings with the energy of the great room visible just beyond the glass. Working inside the National Historic Landmark of Fort Mason again, we used the same delicate touch with design insertions to respect the historic building. Just as in Phase 1, we worked closely with F.inc to establish a program that anticipates the incubator's needs while future-proofing the space—ensuring it feels great for 2 or 100+ people. Studio BBA has deep experience designing workplaces for AI startups and emerging tech companies, where flexibility, collaboration, and momentum are non-negotiable. This expansion brings all of those priorities together in a space that supports founders at every stage—from early prototyping to scaling, from individual focus to community celebration, continuing the mission we began in their original Fort Mason campus. Client Founder's Inc. BBA Team Bonnie Bridges Samantha Buckley Elle Edeker Size 5,200 SF Contractor CCI General Contractor Collaborators Soo Emens - POD Office Photography Suzanna Scott Back to Projects page Back to top
- HAYES VALLEY HOUSE | Studio BBA Architects | Studio BBA Architects
SAN FRANCISCO | Master List HAYES VALLEY HOUSE SAN FRANCISCO The Hayes Valley House was a truely collaborative effort with the owners. This single family home renovation was a huge undertaking including the multi-story addition here in San Francisco. Client Confidential BBA Team Bonnie Bridges Stephanie Griffith Size 1,052 SF Contractor Saturn Construction Collaborators Structural: Semco Engineering Photography Jason Campbell Client Back to Projects page Back to top










