November 7, 2025

Words: Edie Cohen

Designer Olle Lundberg Dies At 71

Olle Lundberg, who recently passed away at the age of 71, was cool. Not that he set out to be. Not that that he necessarily wanted to be. He just was. His San Francisco-based architecture and design practice, founded in 1987 and relocated to the once-industrial turned artsy Dogpatch neighborhood in 1996, is and always has been predicated on craftsmanship and making, even before the phrase ‘maker movement’ became embedded in the profession’s vocabulary.

In terms of his own quarters, he was intrepid. Lundberg Design headquarters are in an erstwhile 1933 mattress factory, its concrete walls, exposed timber trusses, and expansive volume ideal for an architect’s studio plus full fabrication shop from which emanate designs for every project genre: residences both high luxe and earthy; restaurants, nationally renowned and neighborhood hangouts; commercial quarters for the likes of Autodesk, Benchmark Capital, Google, and Twitter; a winery; a whiskey bar. You name it.

When Interior Design met him decades ago, he had transformed a decommissioned Icelandic transport ferry into a live-work space for himself, wife Mary Breuer, and whatever dog then part of the family. Having made its way through the Panama Canal to San Francisco Bay where it was docked, it was later sold. On terra firma, he turned a dilapidated 1930’s fishing shack in a secluded cove at Bodega Bay into a beach house for his family. Also for his family was a cabin on the Sonoma coast built over several years with materials left over from projects.

Olle Lundberg
Olle Lundberg. Photography by Yoshihiro Makino.

Given San Francisco’s foodie culture, Lundberg may be best known for his association with the late chef Charles Phan and The Slanted Door. Originally a humble restaurant in The Mission on Valencia Street, the paean to Vietnamese cuisine earned high-profile, high-visibility status, and national acclaim with a move to the Ferry Building where multiple design elements in the new venue came courtesy of the Lundberg shop.  Shuttered by Covid, the restaurant, via Lundberg Design, is currently headed back to its roots. Flour+Water and Flour+Water Pizzeria are other local favorites as is South, the lobby-adjacent eatery in the SF Jazz Center.

Residences enrich the city’s landscape, further extending to the Monterrey Peninsula, Napa, Hawaii, and the island of Salt Spring in Canada. Surely the jewel in the crown is the former Pacific Heights home of Lawrence Ellison (See Interior Design, October 1997). On par with the heart-stopping views of the San Francisco Bay and exquisite internal checkerboard garden is the 10,000-pound granite boulder that Lundberg Studio ingeniously fabricated into a suspended fountain.

Olle’s recently published book, An Architecture of Craft, published in October 2025 by Princeton Architectural Press / Chronicle Books. Photography by Conner Wishard.

Back in the city, denizens and visitors alike experience public transportation in thoughtful style thanks to SFMTA bus shelters. Ecologically designed, the 14,000 structures provide a pop of visual identity thanks to their scarlet ribbon-like canopies embedded with photovoltaic film.

Accolades, including several Interior Design Best of Year Awards citations, and published projects loom large. Meanwhile, the studio intends to continue its founder’s groundbreaking work. Olle Lundberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature and sculpture from Washington+Lee University, and an M.Arch degree from the University of Virginia, which awarded him the Distinguished Alumni Award, 2023. Mere days before his sudden October 31 passing, he launched his book. Olle Lundberg: An Architecture of Craft, with a forward by his friend and collaborator, artist Andy Goldsworthy, is published by Princeton Architectural Press/Chronicle Books, and Lundberg had been planning a series of book talks and events to celebrate. For those inclined, please consider a donation to Redwood Coast Humane Society.

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