BLUE BOTTLE, MISSION BAY San Francisco, CA

Located along what will soon be the main public green space of the fast-growing Mission Bay neighborhood, the design of this cafe takes advantage of wrap-around windows and a prominent corner location by inserting a welcoming coffee “pavilion" into the existing, raw concrete space.

Conceived as a modern, minimalist take on mid-century drive-in, or “Googie" architecture, the design imagines the cafe as a series of small pavilions on the green that beckon customers inside with their brightly lit, soaring “roofs” that extend outward towards the street. These thin, floating planes partially conceal the maze of new and existing utilities above, which are painted grey and left visible to draw a contrast between the refined customer areas and the rough shell of the space they live within.

Each pavilion is clad in wood tambour panels- maple to highlight the service area and oak for the support spaces- with rounded corners that slip gracefully between the building’s bare concrete columns. The custom furnishings, curved to match the pavilions and allow for wraparound seating, pick up on this contrasting material palette with oak veneer tops and blond, exposed thin ply edges.

The simple, durable, and tactile materials used in this café, honestly and creatively expressed, create a timeless, long-lasting design that reinforces the brand's commitment to the art and craft of coffee making.