Huntsman Architectural Group, Pfau Long, RMW, and SHoP Architects Earn a Best of Year Award for Uber Office

2021 Best of Year winner for Tech Office

A dozen years ago, Uber disrupted the transportation system with its ride-hailing technology. Today, the company proves itself another disruptor, this time in workplace design. Its new headquarters in Mission Bay is a consortium of four towers by four internationally renowned studios. For buildings one and two, SHoP Architects conceived the original plan, which features a pair of glass sky bridges, and RMW handled interiors. Huntsman Architectural Group was mainly responsible for the interiors of buildings three and four, created on spec by Pfau Long. Then Huntsman and RMW collaborated with Uber on the 23-acre master plan. As for stats: Building one is 11 stories, two is seven, and three and four rise 11 stories each. Interiors total just over 1 million square feet, bringing together some 4,000 staffers. The project is conceived as a micro-city that breaks down into boroughs by the towers, communities analogous to floors, and neighborhoods as signaled by teams, a broad organizational device encouraging people to come together. All staffers experience a shared panoply of indoor-outdoor junctions: public spaces, collaboration areas, and quiet zones in the form of libraries, wellness facilities, cafés and break rooms—designed for communal and active or focused and calm activity. This being a tech company, the lobby is a digital experience made by Hush, with LED-powered graphics and lighting. Just beyond, a white screen by Yellow Goat Design looks like digital code but is actually powder-coated aluminum.

huntsman architectural group: David Link; Nicole Everett; David Meckley; Alison Woolf; Rene Calara; Adam Murphy; Greg Dumont; Jena Kissinger; Edna Wang; Patrycja Dragan; David Hevesi; Edward Sweeney; Julio Gutierrez; Dierra Goetz; Saruyna Leano; Elias Horat; Amy Stock; Hadley Bell; Eric Nelson; Joanna Heringer; Takrit Jirawudomchai; Pam Robinson

RMW: Terry Kwik; Karen Letteney; Jin Park; Owen Huang; Britni Williams; Darren Barboza; Janet Braden; Sal Wikke; Oscar Catarino; Felice Rosario; Gloria N. Rasmussen; Annette Litle; Josh Carrell; Maurice Farinas; Jonathan Chow; Yinong Liu

SHoP Architects: Christopher Sharples; Angelica Trevino Baccon; Shannon Han