Uber Mission Bay Campus Rendering

As we first reported a few weeks ago, the design of Uber’s worldwide headquarters to rise in San Francisco’s Mission Bay is off to a bit of a rocky start, with a conflict between Uber’s team and a Principal at Gensler having caused a shake-up within the architecture firm’s San Francisco office.

And now, it appears that Uber has backed away from Gensler’s design as rendered above and will be pursuing SHoP‘s design as modeled below, characterized as “two boring glass boxes” by our insider:

Uber Mission Bay Campus Model

The two boxes will rise at 1455 and 1515 Third Street, adjacent to the Golden State Warriors arena development that’s in the works.  And with approvals for the development already in place, we’re expecting a quick start.

27 thoughts on “Uber Abruptly Changes Direction For Mission Bay HQ”
  1. Hey guys, do you want to say anything about the conspicuous watermark on the top right corner of this image?! SHoP is NOT Gensler, you know, and that’s a pretty big deal. If SHoP has anything to do with this project, my guess is it will be far from boring, and in fact pretty awesome (Barclay’s center). I wish they were doing the GSW stadium, instead of this poser firm out of Kansas City that barely has any built work to its name.

      1. Manica Architecture out of KC is doing the design, with Craig Dykers from Snohetta merely consulting as “design advisor”.

  2. Blowing hot and cold. People disliked the new Trinity Apartments design and lament over the original ones which looked a lot like Uber’s original idea (which I liked.) Be consistent in your tastes. Remember no one here is paying out of pocket to construct this.

    1. One more thing: thank you very much Uber for signing a big lease for office space in the Chevron building on Market and moving closer to the Financial District (in which I have an interest.)

    2. There is a big difference between Trinity Apartments and what we’ve seen of the Ubers potential building. I would not even put in the same field of comparison. One crappy box (Trinity) is not the same as a beautifully detailed, thoughtfully massed, thoroughly considered box (Uber).

        1. Does anyone have any more information on the kerfuffle originally mentioned? I heard that Peter Weingarten might be getting forced out of Oakland now too? Anyone with anymore details?

  3. Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The original design was amazing! Why more boxes? Why, why, why???!!!

  4. Good call on SHoP! A great firm that blends cutting edge design with refined urbanism.

    Gensler’s proposal is more suited to the Chinese Politburo’s HQ: “YOU MUST OBEY!” As such, I can see why it appealed to some faction within Uber.

  5. A friend who works in Gensler told me this: Gensler actually WON the competition for UBER’s HQ against SHoP.

    Political infighting, mismanagement, jealousy, poor management, fear and embarrassment within Gensler caused them to pull out of the project: The usual dumb designer stuff. She said that the Gensler heads are all envious, petty interior designers and had no idea what they were doing anyway – they were scared and knew they were in over their heads and made silly excuses to pull out of the project. Uber had no choice but to go with SHoP, the runner up. It’s a shame. But SHoP is an excellent firm and surely they will do a great job on this project.

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