San Francisco, California, USA

After several years of planning and construction, Uber Technologies, Inc. plans to complete its move into a brand new, custom-built global headquarters — located in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco this year.

In addition to supporting responsible development by locating it in the city near public transportation, one of the headquarters’ key goal is to bring this developing area into step with the successful, human-scaled environments for which San Francisco is so famous.

The new 423,000-square foot Uber Headquarters includes an eleven-story tower at 1455 Third Street and a six-storey structure at 1515 Third Street, each with active facades that are part of a comprehensive approach to sustainability.

This new workplace, Uber’s first ground-up building, also marks a departure from the growing trend of an entirely open-plan office. Instead, work stations are arranged in a series of smaller neighborhoods, each with access to shared support and collaborative work zones.

Defined by their distinct palettes and elevated materiality, these neighborhoods echo the rich mix of lifestyles essential to the health of every urban environment—and every large company.

A feature known as the Commons—a striking network of circulation and gathering spaces—will bring the life of the building into contact with the life of the streets, and allow views of the living city to serve as a continual inspiration for the creative work taking place inside.

The sustainability features of the Uber buildings center on their innovative “breathing” façades—a computer-controlled system of operable windows that greatly reduce the need for mechanical ventilation. The full-building-height indoor/outdoor spaces of the Commons serves as a buffer zone between the unconditioned exterior and the conditioned interior office environment.

That feature is an integral part of a whole-building environmental strategy that also includes onsite water collection and solar harvesting, with green space both on the roof and in the public park at ground level. The building is expected to meet LEED Platinum requirements when complete.

Architects: SHoP Architects, Studio O+A
Client: Uber Technologies, Inc.