Located at the intersection of Chinatown, North Beach and the Embarcadero, the San Francisco office is surrounded by different cultures and industries. The building is a converted warehouse – with exposed timber beams and loadbearing brick walls – at the heart of the historic waterfront district.
The team have lunch together on Fridays, hold lectures and events, host students from local architecture schools, organise site visits, and throw a summer and winter holiday party every year.
Completed projects include Apple Park in Cupertino, a 12,000 capacity global headquarters that is powered by 100 percent renewable energy. Its landscape and buildings form a seamless whole: the Ring Building, Steve Jobs Theater, Fitness & Wellness Center, Visitors’ Center and South Parking are all encompassed by flowing parkland that enhances the buildings as places to socialise, exercise and work.
In 2020, the practice began working on the redevelopment of the Transamerica Pyramid – a celebrated city landmark that can be seen from the studio. The project gives a new lease of life to the second tallest building in San Francisco. It also expands and upgrades the adjacent Three Transamerica (545 Sansome) to a contemporary high-design office building.
Working collaboratively in a joint venture, Foster + Partners and Arup are overseeing the architecture and engineering for the first four California High-Speed Rail stations in the Central Valley, which will serve as models of design for others planned along the entire 500-mile Los Angeles/Anaheim to San Francisco system.
The practice is also working with Mott MacDonald Wong on the design of three new underground stations as part of the BART to Silicon Valley (BSV) Phase 2 extension to Downtown San Jose and Santa Clara.
