Uber Mission Bay Campus Rendering - SHoP

As we first reported earlier this year, the original design for Uber’s worldwide headquarters to rise in Mission Bay was scrapped after a conflict between Uber’s team and a Principal at Gensler arose and SHoP Architects was then awarded the project, the model for which we first revealed and the first detailed renderings for which have now been released.

Uber Mission Bay Campus Rendering - SHoP - Walkway

The two campus buildings to rise on the former Salesforce.com parcels at 1455 and 1515 Third Street, adjacent to the proposed Golden State Warriors arena and event center, will be connected by a series of overhead walkways with both open and enclosed areas below.

Uber Mission Bay Campus Rendering - SHoP - Commons

Approvals for the project are already in place and Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Uber’s development partner, is aiming to break ground on the urban tech campus by the end of the year.

29 thoughts on “Uber’s Worldwide Headquarters (Take Two)”
  1. Its sort of odd how we all cheered when the Embarcadero Freeway and the 101 stub that crossed Market and Hayes Valley were taken down and opened up the view sight lines, and now with this and the new East Bay Terminal we are building new things to do it all over again.

  2. its a nice enough proposal. based on this SHoP is a good architect not great.

    More interesting question is whether Uber will occupy the entire building by the time it built — or whether it wont need so much space anymore (…. a la dot com 2.0) because its enterprise size gets right sized by market reality and investment return needs.

    1. I agree. The bigger concern is will Uber justify its valuation? There are plenty of sublease space available now, remnants from other start-ups’ overexuberance combined with lack of revenue. Easy to spend VC money, not so easy to make your own.

      1. North of Market there are many, many for lease signs in the financial district. All this new building seems to be sucking tenants out of older buildings and leaving them vacant.

        Its not a long-term viable way for an office market to go. Not much net in-migration of companies or jobs – just shuffling the existing workforce among buildings.

        If Uber does not need all the space and likewise Salesforce in its building and possibly LinkedIn then in a few years SF could be back to a 14% plus office vacancy rate.

        Oh, Schwab is moving most of its remaining SF workers out and that frees up a big block of office space at One Fremont.

        Think dot com 2.0.

        1. I can speak from experience. Our 70 year old architecture firm was at the east end of Mid-Market Street since the mid 1980’s. Our lease was up for renewal and we are now in the 100 block of California Street, because in this strange new tech-driven world we got a much better deal.

        2. Would be nice to turn some of this vacancy into mixed commercial/residential use and make the FiDi a place to be after 6pm.

        3. Repurposing older buildings into residential is costly but worth it. No need to worry about height and design restrictions, and endless environmental review and neighborhood impact. The residents can enjoy some of the old world architectural features (brick walls, high ceilings, big windows, large units) of a bygone era and walk to work. It is a nice counter-point to the modern and hip places. The Omni Hotel on California Street used to be an office building.

  3. Shouldn’t Uber be using space in lots of other people’s buildings? Then, at certain times of the year, their rents go up. And people can rate them as tenants.

    1. As long as the Planning Department firmly stops the placement of fuzzy pink moustaches in office windows.

    2. Ha! I like this – every morning they have to open their Desker app and find a desk to use – “Sorry, desk usage is peaking! 1.8x rent surcharge in effect”

      Funny how new paradigm people aren’t so keen on the new paradigm when it affects their own bottom line 🙂

    3. You probably think you’re being clever, but that is actually how the commercial real estate market works. And Uber has been a tenant its entire life and done just fine. So now that they’ve decided to build their own office (paying market rate for the land, the materials, the services, etc.) that makes them hypocrites? I guess people who ride Uber but also own a car are hypocrites too then, or what?

    4. That is funny! I have never Ubered (driving or riding.) My first encounter with them was yesterday when a group of Uber recruits were haranguing people pumping gas at a gas station. Their schtick: sign up as an Uber driver and we’ll pay for your gas fill-up. You don’t even have to really drive for Uber. Most people ignored them.

      Lyft uses the pink moustache, not Uber. Initially thought it was some kind of LGBT political statement. It took me a while to figure out what the yellow equal sign with a blue background on bumper stickers meant.

      1. Yeah, Uber.ugh. Can’t say I’m a huge fan of their ethics and practices, but there you go, money talks I guess.

        The pink moustache..ha. My kid kept on thinking he was seeing the same one car over and over again around town with the pink moustache, which was pretty funny. Guess SF can appear much smaller if you’re 4!

  4. If they manage to pull off a space tucked under a building and keep it that light and airy, I’ll be pleasantly surprised.

  5. The renderings look really neat, but I really wonder if they will be able to make it look like that in reality.

  6. “scrapped after a conflict between Uber’s team and a Principal at Gensler arose”

    Wonder if this could be Art himself? The man has an ego the size of the Spruce Goose.

    1. Ha Ha. unlike the Uber founder..
      “Public relations problems the firm faced included Kalanick’s comments to GQ about how easy it is for him to attract women now, concern about his blasé attitude regarding safety issues for female customers, and his toleration of executive Emil Michael, who recommended creating a large budget to smear critics”
      etc…

  7. Uber’s core business idea is easily duplicated. People who want to drive others around for a living will quickly figure out they do not need to pay Ubers unethical sexist managers such a big cut. Uber will go the way of the SF taxi.

    The real question is, “At the end of the day – Does SF / Alexandria get a good building out of this?”
    Yes.

    1. And just what do you think Uber’s “core business ideas” is? Uber is a technology company. They are developing technology for driverless cars. You’re right, Uber’s “core business idea” is to drive others around, but in driverless cars. A lot of money says they will be successful. Do you really think this will be easily duplicated???

    2. Facebook’s core business idea is easily duplicated as well. What isn’t is network effects, which is exactly what Uber is trying to establish dominance in now. They might fail, but the idea that their model is “easily duplicated” is not really true in any kind of winner-take-all situation.

  8. Let’s see, there’s Google’s driverless car technology. And Mercedes’. And Tesla’s. And Ford’s. And Audi’s. And…

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