NICO RESTAURANT SAN FRANCISCO Our approach to Nico Restaurant’s new location was akin to the way the Chef approaches food—with an experiential and inviting sophistication, and decidedly not stuffy. Design choices err toward a pared down purity while accomplishing a higher intent. By exposing the original brick walls we returned architectural authenticity to the space, but also embedded the environment with Owners Andrea & Nicolas Delaroque’s belief in letting ingredients speak for themselves. The building’s historical significance was certainly on our mind during design, having been the midcentury home to SF’s legendary Black Cat Café. The Cat was a cultural institution—an early bohemian hangout where patrons packed in to be entertained by drag shows infused with groundbreaking advocacy for the LGBTQ community and civil liberties. We honored this past with subtle references. The main move was to put Chef Nico’s impeccable kitchen on full view through a wide opening framed in wood trim—as if it were a stage and the diners had front row seats. (In this case, patrons are here to witness the reclamation of a Michelin star, lost only due to relocation). Cat-print wallpaper adds a light touch in the restroom. Jewel tones on the painted exterior and base of the marble-topped bar harken to a French brasserie. Patterned concrete tile flooring enlivens the entry and bar area. The ambiance of the dining area is tempered by nicely detailed wood elements, plaster wall surfaces, a leather-backed banquette and upholstered seating. Back to Projects page Client Nico Restaurant BBA Team Bonnie Bridges Sarah Fucinaro Size 2,900 SF Contractor ACI General Contractors Collaborators MEP: MHC Engineers Photography Mariko Reed Back to top

HERON ARTS SAN FRANCISCO A dramatic space for work, for entertaining and for home, this project occupies two stories of an historic South of Market building. Studio BBA had originally transformed the 8,000 sq. ft. brick warehouse as the LeeQuen Atelier in 2006. Our design approach for Heron was responsive and explorative, seeking to create a few defining gestures with visual impact, while maintaining the casual, open tone set by the Client. New infrastructure—guest bedroom and bathroom, kitchen and communal restrooms—is appropriately industrial and utilitarian in aesthetic, devised to serve the building’s three, overlapping uses. A new stair tempts you up to the roof through a sliding skylight. Sculptural LED lighting adds an artful touch and helps define the spatial zones. An over-scaled, custom steel and glass door grounds the design as a throwback to the building’s earlier use as a commercial laundry. Back to Projects page Client Heron Arts BBA Team Bonnie Bridges Seth Boor Sarah Fucinaro Size 8,000 SF Contractor Jeff King & Co. Collaborators Interiors: Geremia Design Photography Cesar Rubio Back to top

BOLT HQ SAN FRANCISCO For this adaptive reuse project we transformed a banal, South-of-Market industrial site into the headquarters for an ambitious mechanical engineering Venture Capitalist company. Four client-centric objectives guided the architecture: creating space that embodies BOLT’s entrepreneurial engineering/making culture, adding functionality and purpose to all parts of the property, integrating BOLT-made steel elements, and producing a delightful, fun workplace. The property contains two connected, warehouse buildings with a shared courtyard, and the client’s need for a machine shop quickly claimed the smaller building. Existing conditions in the large building—open floor plan, high vaulted ceilings and a mezzanine—posed creative challenges and opportunities for subdividing the volume into the spaces required: offices, open work areas, casual and private meeting spaces, manufacturing incubator/prototype labs and staff amenities that comprised the program requirements, as well as a large multi-purpose space for hosting events and presentations. By inserting a ‘pod’ of meeting and phone rooms into the middle of the large structure we designated space for the labs and event space. Finished birch plywood cladding on the pod’s exterior provides a warm juxtaposition to the existing concrete infrastructure. As a passionate and capable fabricator, BOLT took on a variety of details throughout and after project completion including the custom steel signs, the shipping container courtyard café, and the sculptural feature wall. The final product is a place that inspires creativity and invention, and an architecture that celebrates a utilitarian sense of place. Back to Projects page Client Bolt BBA Team Bonnie Bridges Dave Ornvold Size 10,160 SF + 2,000 SF Courtyard Contractor CCI Collaborators Structural: Santos & Urrutia Structural Engineers, Inc. Photography Iris Brito Stevens Back to top

MESSENGER COFFEE CO. KANSAS CITY Studio BBA was hired as the design architect for this Kansas City coffee company’s first brick and mortar location, which will house a café, roastery, offices and storage, as well as their sister company, Ibis Bakery. The 3-story building is part of an urban revitalization taking place in the nearby Crossroads District, soon be more closely linked to already-vibrant parts of town via the new KC Downtown Streetcar . Customers get a lively, full view of café service and bakery production at street level, entering into a large open community space that puts process on display. A new 3-story, skylit stair inspires upward exploration to Messenger’s roastery and additional café space, and to the public access roof deck. The third floor functions as space for offices, quality control and an incubator for the coffee and bread creation process. The client is a young, design-minded family who want the materials to set a spunky vibe, with clever interjections throughout. The project will be implemented from Design Development through Construction Administration by the client’s local architect. Back to Projects page Client Messenger Coffee Co. BBA Team Bonnie Bridges Sarah Fucinaro Size 19,000 SF Contractor 3 Square Contracting Collaborators Architect of Record: DRAW Architecture + Urban Design Photography Ryan James Carr Back to top

DREAMING BIG WITH GROUND OAKLAND We often have clients find us through the myriad of hospitality projects that we have done over the years . . . where people connect the dots of their favorite Bay Area places (and their ability to foster deeper human connections) back to us. It is endearing and humbling and sometimes surprising, as is the case with these speculative projects for Binta Ayofemi and her non-profit, Ground. Over the course of two years, we worked with this artist to create the master plan, the collages and the architectural backbone for her ambitious artistic vision. You can see the results of one such project at Commons in Oakland. The others live on as dreams for a fairer future in which the flow of global capital emerges from the ground where ideas are born. Back to Projects page Client Binta Ayofemi, Ground BBA Team Bonnie Bridges Anand Sheth Vishnu Balunsat Size Varies Contractor Unbuilt Collaborators Binta Ayofemi Photography None Back to top

TURTLE ROCK HOUSE LOS ANGELES We share a love for the poetry of architecture and its relationship to natural landscapes with the enthusiastic family of four for whom we designed this ground-up, peace-infused southern California residence. Every room in the house enjoys natural light and ventilation, many of which utilize skylights to mitigate the need for artificial light during the day. An expansive great room acts as a central point of connection and interaction for the family, and provides common access to the personal spaces: an acoustically-isolated music room, a home office with framed vista of the park, a studio space, and the bedrooms and bathrooms. The house is oriented to appreciate the site’s bucolic urban and rural views as well as the bordering park, with the massing and form of its main volume embracing the adjacent greenspace. A lush, native front garden contrasts the smooth, modern façade in texture and color, engaging street life while maintaining privacy. Around the back of the house, ample space for outdoor living is connected to the interior through full height walls of glass doors and windows, framed by the warmth of consistent wood and stucco planes. Back to Projects page Client Confidential BBA Team Bonnie Bridges Size 3,000 SF Contractor Mike Mckay Construction Collaborators Structural: Wickstrom Structural Engineering Geotechnical: Mission Geoscience, Inc Soils: Bagahi Engineering Inc. Civil: Incledon Consulting Group Photography Bruce Damonte Studio BBA Back to top

NATIVE SF SAN FRANCISCO Studio BBA worked with the San Francisco based brand Native to experiment and trial new ways to organize their ever growing organization within their existing space. We provided schematic plans, elevations, and furniture proposals on how they can warm up their workspace while capturing the brand and team's ethos. Our first priority was a new layout that moved existing workstations towards the windows, and creating parity with consistent short rows of workstations. We created a warm complimentary palette inspired by their ever growing portfolio of scents to make it more comfortable and to organize the space—Native blue for quiet focus areas, warm hues for activated collaboration areas. Back to Projects page Client Native BBA Team Bonnie Bridges Samantha Buckley Michelle Cruz Size 6,500 SF Contractor Collaborators Photography Back to top

THUMBTACK HQ MARKET STREET 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. Back to Projects page 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 top

CUB UTAH The clients purchased this beautiful and secluded parcel of land in the red rock country of Southern Utah 14 years ago when they fell in love with the area. After acquiring one of only a few water permits in 2008, the clients turned to Studio BBA to design a C.U.B., a "Camp Utah Base," that maximizes the natural experience while providing a simple and comfortable place to call home-away-from-home. The design task was to create a base camp from which to venture out - returning at night to a place that provides the same feeling of expansiveness as the red rock valley. Through our process, we discovered new ways to create a luxurious home without the distracting and artificial elements that appear all too often in homes surrounded by nature. Studio BBA achieved simple luxury through subtle design moves and strategic plans for passive cooling and natural light. The new home provides ample room for the clients and a few guests to enjoy the calming interiors, connecting the valley through wind, view, and sounds. The multiple decks allow for outdoor living in every season. Conceptually, the two wings, one public and one private, are connected by what we call the "knuckle" - a shed-shaped entry space that connects the gable geometries of the two wings. We preserved the natural pinion pine and juniper in the landscape and integrated various sustainable design elements (PV array to provide 90% of power, site orientation to maximize passive cooling and natural light, and efficient framing with TJI's) to ensure this home is effectively and consciously situated in its natural environment. Back to Projects page Client Confidential BBA Team Bonnie Bridges Size 1,650 SF Contractor Paul Brown & Sons Construction Collaborators Structural: Shen Engineering Cabinets: Nathan Morrell Cabinets Photography Studio BBA Back to top

SIGHTGLASS ON 20TH 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. Back to Projects page 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 top