This newly developed amenity space, located off the main lobby of the Bay Area Metro Center in downtown San Francisco, provides a flexible, light-filled venue designed to accommodate a panoply of uses to support the tenants housed above it.
The design team was charged with articulating a vision for the cold shell space and crafting a setting driven by the goals of the building’s anchor tenants: the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and the Bay Conservation and Development Commission. Its design leverages soaring ceiling heights and north and west facing windows of the same measure that connect occupants with the urban fabric of the city just outside its doors, including stunning views of the skyline and a landscaped pedestrian mall. Multiple “rooms” within the space facilitate diverse simultaneous uses, supported by furniture and space planning that prioritize efficient circulation and flexibility. Infrastructure for catering, which includes a food service/cafe bar and back-of-house kitchen, along with extensive audio-visual technology for conference, performance, and assembly uses, is seamlessly integrated.
The buildout is one of multiple interior development projects designed by TEF within the building, including the top four floors, as part of the award-winning transformation of the c.1942 building, into a shared headquarters for the Bay Area’s most progressive government agencies a few years prior.
