Bloomberg’s “Look at That Building: A Series for the Architecturally Curious,” tells the story of how SOM worked with Related California and the City of San Francisco to create 1550 Mission, a residential tower in the transit-rich SoMa district, and 49 South Van Ness, which consolidated the City of San Francisco’s planning, public works, and building inspections department offices into a single building.

The article focuses on the latter building, which provides roughly 1,800 city employees with “a work environment on par with many of the private-sector spaces that the region’s tech workers have become accustomed to.” 

“We wanted to bring the city’s operations into the 21st century,” says SOM consulting partner Craig Hartman. “We wanted to bring these operations into daylight for the public, provide dignity for the city staff and help with everything from retention to recruiting and the actual work product.”

Featured Image: CityLab Illustration by Stephanie Davidson.