Projects

Uber 555

Uber approached O+A with the need for a temporary office to absorb its rapidly-expanding workforce while it builds a new headquarters from the ground up. Because that construction won’t be completed for a couple of years, the temporary space needed to be more than a placeholder—but not a major budget commitment.

Uber approached O+A with the need for a temporary office to absorb its rapidly-expanding workforce while it builds a new headquarters from the ground up. Because that construction won’t be completed for a couple of years, the temporary space needed to be more than a placeholder—but not a major budget commitment.

  • City San Francisco

  • Year 2016

  • Size 200,000 sf

  • Team Michelle Richter, Alan Lee, Dan Kretchmer, Dani Canepa, Tova Schachter, Donald Koide, Elizabeth Vereker, Tarryn Manskie

  • Photographer Jasper Sandidad

Just Visiting

Our solution was to pursue a design of “temporary permanence”—using inexpensive materials in elevated ways. Drawing on color inspirations from various cities in the world where this firm has a presence, we used furniture and graphics on bare concrete walls and floors to tell the story. With each floor of this multiple-floor project representing a different city, the palette shifted up and down the elevator, but the overarching theme remained consistent: bringing the urban environment indoors. As in a city street the mix of raw surfaces with sophisticated visual cues extends throughout the project.

Seeking Warmth

Plywood is ubiquitous here—but plywood finished to accentuate the grain. As cushioned lounge bench or wall installation cut geometrically to match painted patterns, plywood here is a warming agent in spaces with white walls and concrete floors. Similarly, furniture and lighting throughout the project double as sculpture. From pink and blue cafeteria chairs to pendant lighting fixtures in a medley of shapes and styles, functional elements are used aesthetically on every floor.

Give ’em the old razzle dazzle

Among the quirkier motifs of this project are the wall graphics inspired by World War II era dazzle camouflage. Used on ships to confound torpedo aiming mechanisms, these patterns of broad stripes lend themselves here to the industrial aesthetic, while making a subtle, tongue-in-cheek statement to the company’s competitors.