20 Best Architecture Firms in San Francisco

Not like many cities, San Francisco’s most iconic construction isn’t a constructing however a bridge. Whereas the Golden Gate looms massive in fashionable tradition, it casts a shadow over a number of the hilly metropolis’s extra iconic buildings. Likewise, though bay home windows might rival the bridge’s iconic standing, town’s eclectic mixture of Queen Anne and Victorian houses with trendy structure is much less typically remarked upon as noteworthy in and of itself. But, designing and constructing with heritage in thoughts is only one of many challenges that town’s architects rise to in any design (steep hills and a meandering waterfront representing different distinguished hurdles).

As Silicon Valley has grown, making property costs skyrocket, architects are more and more pressed to deal with rising inequality and the inexpensive housing disaster. On the similar time, they’ve responded to the expansion of wealth and enterprise by designing campuses, workplaces, masterplans and the like. The city points that San Francisco faces are each daunting and complicated, however the excessive caliber of native corporations makes town well-suited to rise to the event.

With so many structure corporations to select from, it’s difficult for shoppers to determine the trade leaders that shall be an excellent match for his or her undertaking wants. Thankfully, Architizer is ready to present steerage on the highest design corporations in San Francisco primarily based on greater than a decade of information and trade data.

How are these structure corporations ranked?

The next rating has been created in line with key statistics that display every agency’s degree of architectural excellence. The next metrics have been accrued to ascertain every structure agency’s rating, so as of precedence:

• The variety of A+Awards gained (2013 to 2023)
• The variety of A+Awards finalists (2013 to 2023)
• The variety of initiatives chosen as “Challenge of the Day” (2009 to 2023)
• The variety of initiatives chosen as “Featured Challenge” (2009 to 2023)
• The variety of initiatives uploaded to Architizer (2009 to 2023)

Every of those metrics is defined in additional element on the foot of this text. This rating checklist shall be up to date yearly, considering new achievements of San Francisco structure corporations all year long.

With out additional ado, listed below are the 20 finest structure corporations in San Francisco:

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20. Fougeron Structure

Fougeron Structure is a nationally acknowledged design agency whose work reveals a powerful dedication to readability of thought, design integrity, and high quality of architectural element. The agency’s decidedly modernist perspective is the results of founder Anne Fougeron’s imaginative and prescient to create a apply devoted to discovering the right alignment between architectural concept and constructed type. Her work could be outlined by three fundamental tenets:

• Architectural house is modulated by the standard and character of pure mild,
• Revolutionary use of construction turns into the architectural decoration, and
• Exploration into the visible and tactile nature of supplies enhances how folks interact a constructing.

Ms. Fougeron’s eager curiosity in crossing disciplinary boundaries has led the agency to develop a collaborative design course of that capitalizes on her relationships with craftsmen and artists who’re specialists of their fields.

A few of Fougeron Structure’s most distinguished initiatives embrace:

The next statistics helped Fougeron Structure obtain twentieth place within the 20 Finest Structure Corporations in San Francisco:

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19. MWA Architects

At MWA Architects, we strategy every undertaking with a holistic design imaginative and prescient as a result of we all know that our work can create a constructive and lasting affect for each folks and the surroundings. Our major markets concentrate on humanity’s important wants — housing to assist our well-being and entry to wholesome infrastructure – nonetheless, we pursue numerous undertaking varieties all integral to a thriving neighborhood. The widespread thread in all of our work is that we intentionally tackle difficult initiatives with advanced and numerous stakeholder wants as these alternatives can typically encourage significant change. A West-Coast-based agency, based in 1988, we try to create a legacy of lovely and sustainable structure that positively impacts the world.

A few of MWA Architects’s most distinguished initiatives embrace:

• Brooklyn Basin Township Commons, Oakland, California
• San Francisco Worldwide Airport Terminal 2, San Francisco, California
• Renaissance Commons, Portland, Oregon
• Oak Harbor Clear Water Facility & Windjammer Park, Oak Harbor, Washington
• Palo Alto Dewatering & Loadout Facility, Palo Alto, California

The next statistics helped MWA Architects obtain nineteenth place within the 20 Finest Structure Corporations in San Francisco:

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18. STUDIOS Structure

STUDIOS believes within the transformative energy of design to carry the trajectories of particular person lives and whole communities. We’ve seen it occur many times since our founding, again when the primary tech growth was only a spark. As these early innovators modified the way in which all of us stay, study and work, we modified the way in which they thought of house — as a strategic useful resource for expressing their distinctive imaginative and prescient and fueling extraordinary success.
Whereas our affect and experience have expanded, our versatile strategy to design stays essentially the identical. We push boundaries, guided by the knowledge of shut shopper partnerships and the arrogance wanted to take huge and small steps ahead collectively.

A few of STUDIOS Structure’s most distinguished initiatives embrace:

• Kearny Level Constructing 78 Annex, Kearny, New Jersey
• Dow Jones, New York Metropolis, New York
• IAC Constructing, Interiors, New York Metropolis, New York
• 200 Fifth Avenue, New York Metropolis, New York
• Nike – New York Headquarters, New York Metropolis, New York

The next statistics helped STUDIOS Structure obtain 18th place within the 20 Finest Structure Corporations in San Francisco:

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17. Studio O+A

At Studio O+A, our work course of combines creativity and suppleness with the technical experience to understand applicable options for our shopper. As a result of our professionals are educated and skilled in all points of company planning and design, we train a level of management that carries initiatives from idea to complete with consistency and economic system.

A few of Studio O+A’s most distinguished initiatives embrace:

• adidas East Village Enlargement, Portland, Oregon
• Slack, San Francisco, California
• Vara, San Francisco, California
• McDonald’s Headquarters, Chicago, Illinois
• Fb HQ, Palo Alto, California

The next statistics helped Studio O+A obtain seventeenth place within the 20 Finest Structure Corporations in San Francisco:

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16. OPA

Ogrydziak Prillinger Architects is a progressive San Francisco-based workplace that has been globally acknowledged for initiatives ranging in scale from establishments to non-public houses, in addition to inside and object design. Based in 2004, OPA is an idea-driven workplace dedicated to discovering design options that each develop the chances inherent in structure and resonate inside their specific context.

Whereas each undertaking originates as a response to particular necessities of web site, program and shopper, it evolves as an exploration of its personal inner potential moderately than reflecting a predetermined architectural type. In all of the work, there may be an emphasis on shaping and choreographing spatial experiences by way of the consideration of motion, notion and formal logic.

A few of OPA’s most distinguished initiatives embrace:

The next statistics helped OPA obtain sixteenth place within the 20 Finest Structure Corporations in San Francisco:

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15. Andrea Cochran Panorama Structure

Motivated by a conviction that panorama design has the ability to change notion and in the end provoke a deeper respect for the surroundings, ACLA designs areas that supply alternatives for customers to forge new relationships with their environment. By way of an iterative course of, we discover easy responses to advanced issues, and search to raise experiences by way of layering and choreography of motion. The belief we construct with our shoppers by way of long-term partnerships is a vital basis of our work, as every new undertaking expands our expression of design and craft.

A few of Andrea Cochran Panorama Structure’s most distinguished initiatives embrace:

• Windhover Contemplative Heart, Stanford, California
• Richardson Inexpensive Residences, San Francisco, California
• Los Altos Residence, Los Altos, California
• Telegraph Hill Residence, San Francisco, California
• Birmingham Residence, Detroit, Michigan

The next statistics helped Andrea Cochran Panorama Structure obtain fifteenth place within the 20 Finest Structure Corporations in San Francisco:

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14. Cass Calder Smith Structure + Interiors

We imagine that masterful design is exclusive, related and timeless. We actually like iconic structure that’s conceptually attention-grabbing and likewise reveals an consideration to element, materiality and authenticity. We admire boldness balanced with simplicity, innovation balanced with performance and energy balanced with precision. We see ourselves as well-traveled creators with a conviction {that a} gifted and skilled crew that rigorously listens is a worthwhile ally. We’re professionally motivated to attach the points of inventive ambition, drawback fixing, environmental accountability and elegance inside demanding necessities.
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We’re an award-winning multidisciplinary agency devoted to design excellence. We had been based in 1992 by Architect Cass Calder Smith and at the moment are comprised of 4 principals that embrace Barbara Vickroy, Taylor Lawson and Tim Quayle.

A few of Cass Calder Smith Structure + Interiors’s most distinguished initiatives embrace:

• Print Lounge, New York Metropolis, New York
• Diane Middlebrook Studios, Woodside, California
• Stairway to Heaven, San Francisco, California
• Aptos Retreat, Aptos, California
• Mill Valley Residence, Marin County, California

The next statistics helped Cass Calder Smith Structure + Interiors obtain 14th place within the 20 Finest Structure Corporations in San Francisco:

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13. Rapt Studio

We’re into branding, design, and the areas that convey them collectively.
We love connecting issues. Websites, design, and technique — we predict it’s higher once they all come collectively.
We’re a bunch of designers, builders, thinkers, and followers of tradition who love creating inspiring areas, digital locations and the whole lot in between. In brief, we assist corporations stand out and stand for one thing.

A few of Rapt Studio’s most distinguished initiatives embrace:

• Vans International HQ, Costa Mesa, California
• Make, Carlsbad, California
• Basalt, Napa, California
• J Dawgs, Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah
• Dropbox HQ, San Francisco, California

The next statistics helped Rapt Studio obtain thirteenth place within the 20 Finest Structure Corporations in San Francisco:

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12. Mork Ulnes Architects

With workplaces in San Francisco and Oslo, Mork Ulnes Architects approaches initiatives with a mixture of Scandinavian practicality and Northern California’s ‘can-do’ spirit of innovation.

A few of Mork Ulnes Architects’s most distinguished initiatives embrace:

• Skigard Hytte, Fåvang, Norway
• Mylla Cabin, Oppland, Norway
• MOOSE ROAD RESIDENCE, Ukiah, California
• MEIER ROAD BARN, Sonoma, California
• Troll Hus, Placer County, California

The next statistics helped Mork Ulnes Architects obtain twelfth place within the 20 Finest Structure Corporations in San Francisco:

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11. S^A | Schwartz and Structure

S^A | Schwartz and Structure is a contemporary structure and inside design studio established by Founder + Principal Neal J. Z. Schwartz, FAIA in 1997. Our experience is in guiding shoppers by way of a extremely interactive design course of tailor-made to their personalities, budgets and desires. Reasonably than imposing a pre-conceived aesthetic, we start our work by thoughtfully analyzing the actual alternatives posed by any web site and constraint. We stay concerned at each stage of design and development and thrive working with mounted schedules and assets.

A few of S^A | Schwartz and Structure’s most distinguished initiatives embrace:

The next statistics helped S^A | Schwartz and Structure obtain eleventh place within the 20 Finest Structure Corporations in San Francisco:

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10. Mark Cavagnero Associates

Mark Cavagnero Associates is a San Francisco-based structure agency centered on cultural, industrial, training, and civic initiatives. Since its institution in 1988, the agency has accomplished a variety of architectural and grasp planning initiatives, together with massive and small scale institutional, non-profit, industrial, and residential initiatives. The agency gives a full vary of companies, from programming, grasp planning, web site planning and conceptual design, by way of development paperwork and administration.

A few of Mark Cavagnero Associates’s most distinguished initiatives embrace:

• UC San Francisco, Joan & Sanford I. Weill Neurosciences Constructing, San Francisco, California
• Quest Diagnostics Subsequent Era Lab, Clifton, New Jersey
• Confidential Funding Agency, California
• Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California
• San Francisco Conservatory of Music – Ute and William Ok. Bowes, Jr. Heart for Performing Arts, San Francisco, California

The next statistics helped Mark Cavagnero Associates obtain tenth place within the 20 Finest Structure Corporations in San Francisco:

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9. Klopf Structure

Klopf Structure brings the surface in. Our agency creates heat, trendy designs that admit pure mild and permit openness to nature. Our design strategy weighs many elements to create customized designs with simply the precise degree of connection to the surface world: shoppers’ targets and life-style, web site orientation, views, local weather and neighborhood context. Our major objective is to create areas folks like to inhabit.

Specializing in new heat, trendy net-zero power homes, we’re well known for our work transforming and including to mid-century trendy and Eichler houses. We imagine in bringing these great houses again to life for one more era to like, or creating new, inexperienced trendy houses that present the identical degree of heat and connection to nature that comply with an identical philosophy.

A few of Klopf Structure’s most distinguished initiatives embrace:

The next statistics helped Klopf Structure obtain ninth place within the 20 Finest Structure Corporations in San Francisco:

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8. Arterra Panorama Architects

Arterra is a full-service panorama structure agency specializing in modern, sustainable design. We collaborate with our shoppers and their design crew, offering imaginative options and clear communication. The Arterra Group is a various and barely quirky group of inventive and nerdy people. We’re devoted to the artwork and the craft of our occupation. We take into account it an honor and a privilege to do the work we do — and we do it nicely.

We share concepts and inspiration in our stunning, open studio house, the place design concepts come to life. We’re devoted to doing sustainable work and residing sustainable lives. Our biggest achievement is making a significant and sustainable panorama legacy.

A few of Arterra Panorama Architects’s most distinguished initiatives embrace:

• Dry Backyard Poetry, Santa Cruz, California
• The Painterly Strategy, Belvedere Tiburon, California
• Farm to Desk, Woodside, California
• Impressed by the Land, Healdsburg, California
• Taronga, Carmel-by-the-Sea, California

Prime picture: Artwork Home, San Francisco, California

The next statistics helped Arterra Panorama Architects obtain eighth place within the 20 Finest Structure Corporations in San Francisco:

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7. Aidlin Darling Design

With a shared curiosity in exploring design throughout a variety of scales, applications, and disciplines, companions Joshua Aidlin and David Darling began Aidlin Darling Design round a woodshop in 1998. With an emphasis on designing for all the senses, they’ve cultivated a various and collaborative studio that acts because the inventive hub for an prolonged community of builders, fabricators, artists, engineers, cooks and different collaborators. The agency’s work explores a carefully held conviction that design can enlighten the human spirit by partaking all the senses.

A few of Aidlin Darling Design’s most distinguished initiatives embrace:

The next statistics helped Aidlin Darling Design obtain seventh place within the 20 Finest Structure Corporations in San Francisco:

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6. Jensen Architects

At JENSEN we’re enthusiastic about creating buildings and environments that enrich the experiences of organizations and people. Guided by a accountability to attain probably the most utilizing the fewest assets and to have interaction a broader cultural perspective, we develop options that embody every shopper’s values and bigger function.

Our wide-ranging portfolio — encompassing arts, training, residential, office and retail — is underpinned by an abiding curiosity in how we stay and work at this time, and the pleasure we soak up collectively fixing design challenges by way of analysis, unconventional pondering and a concentrate on craft. The economic system and directness in our work displays not solely a transparent concern for ecological sustainability but additionally a deep appreciation of the inherent magnificence that emerges when useful, experiential and environmental targets are effectively and gracefully resolved. We’re acknowledged for modern purposes of confirmed constructing techniques and supplies and valued for our collaborative strategy to design and development.

A few of Jensen Architects’s most distinguished initiatives embrace:

• Stanford Residence, Stanford, California
• The Shed Healdsburg, Healdsburg, California
• Blue Bottle Morse Constructing, Oakland, California
• Turner Residence, Larkspur, California
• SFMOMA Rooftop Sculpture Backyard, San Francisco, California

The next statistics helped Jensen Architects obtain sixth place within the 20 Finest Structure Corporations in San Francisco:

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5. Form4 Structure

Form4 Structure believes in returning a way of humanity to Modernism by way of emotional which means and poetic design. The San Francisco-based award‐successful agency measures success by our contributions to society by way of a 2nd Century Modernist strategy that balances expressive design, rigor, empathy and sustainability to create fascinating buildings and areas that resonate with folks and improve their lives.

A few of Form4 Structure’s most distinguished initiatives embrace:

The next statistics helped Form4 Structure obtain fifth place within the 20 Finest Structure Corporations in San Francisco:

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4. Feldman Structure

Feldman Structure is an modern residential and industrial studio identified for creating buildings that sit frivolously on the earth: stunning, healthful, and soulful areas that improve our shoppers’ lives, our communities and the surroundings.

A few of Feldman Structure’s most distinguished initiatives embrace:

• Mill Valley Cabins, Mill Valley, California
• Slot Home, Los Altos, California
• The Sanctuary, Palo Alto, California
• Dawn, Healdsburg, California
• Surf Home, Santa Cruz, California

The next statistics helped Feldman Structure obtain 4th place within the 20 Finest Structure Corporations in San Francisco:

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3. IwamotoScott Structure

IwamotoScott Structure is an award successful structure and design agency established by Lisa Iwamoto and Craig Scott. Based mostly in San Francisco, the agency has gained nationwide and worldwide recognition for modern design with initiatives across the nation and abroad. Dedicated to pursuing structure as a type of utilized design analysis, IwamotoScott proceeds from the assumption that every undertaking can obtain a novel design synthesis.

IwamotoScott’s shopper checklist consists of arts organizations, instructional establishments, media corporations, industrial builders and personal shoppers. Our initiatives consist of labor in any respect scales together with city design, buildings, interiors, full-scale fabrications, museum installations and exhibitions and theoretical proposals. IwamotoScott has acquired over eighty design awards and honors.

A few of IwamotoScott Structure’s most distinguished initiatives embrace:

• Pinterest HQ, San Francisco, California
• Pinterest HQ2, San Francisco, California
• Heavybit Industries, 325, ninth Road, San Francisco, California
• Metropolis View Storage, Miami Design District, Miami, Florida
• Pinterest NY – Scissor Stair, New York Metropolis, New York

The next statistics helped IwamotoScott Structure obtain third place within the 20 Finest Structure Corporations in San Francisco:

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2. Salter

Salter consults on over 900 worldwide initiatives every year with headquarters in San Francisco and department workplaces in San Jose, Los Angeles, Honolulu and Seattle. In 1975, Charles Salter based the corporate on rules of sound engineering, scientific course of, inquisitive drawback fixing, and private integrity. His motto was easy: to be higher on daily basis. Having grown from 1 engineer to a crew of fifty that features acoustical, audiovisual, telecommunications, and safety specialists, that dedication stays the identical.

At Salter, our legacy is 45 years of award-winning initiatives. We’re a crew of Skilled Engineers, LEED Accredited Professionals, Licensed Know-how Specialists, Registered Communications Distribution Designers, Fellows of the Audio Engineering Society and Fellows of the Acoustical Society of America.

A few of Salter’s most distinguished initiatives embrace:

The next statistics helped Salter obtain 2nd place within the 20 Finest Structure Corporations in San Francisco:

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1. Gensler

Gensler is a world structure, design and planning agency with 53 areas and greater than 7,000 professionals networked throughout Asia, Europe, Australia, the Center East and the Americas. Based in San Francisco in 1965, the agency serves greater than 4,000 shoppers throughout greater than 29 apply areas spanning the work, life-style, neighborhood and well being sectors. Gensler designers attempt to make the locations folks stay, work and play extra inspiring, extra resilient and extra impactful.

A few of Gensler’s most distinguished initiatives embrace:

The next statistics helped Gensler obtain 1st place within the 20 Finest Structure Corporations in San Francisco:

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Why Ought to I Belief Architizer’s Rating?

With greater than 30,000 structure corporations and over 130,000 initiatives inside its database, Architizer is proud to host the world’s largest on-line neighborhood of architects and constructing product producers. Its celebrated A+Awards program can be the biggest celebration of structure and constructing merchandise, with greater than 400 jurors and a whole bunch of 1000’s of public votes serving to to acknowledge the world’s finest structure every year.

Architizer additionally powers agency directories for various AIA (American Institute of Architects) Chapters nationwide, together with the official listing of structure corporations for AIA New York.

A Information to Challenge Awards

The blue “+” badge denotes {that a} undertaking has gained a prestigious A+Award as described above. Hovering over the badge reveals particulars of the award, together with award class, yr, and whether or not the undertaking gained the jury or fashionable selection award.

The orange Challenge of the Day and yellow Featured Challenge badges are awarded by Architizer’s Editorial crew, and are chosen primarily based on various elements. The next elements improve a undertaking’s probability of being featured or awarded Challenge of the Day standing:

• Challenge accomplished inside the final 3 years
• A nicely written, concise undertaking description of at the least 3 paragraphs
• Architectural design with a excessive degree of each useful and aesthetic worth
• Prime quality, in focus images
• A minimum of 8 images of each the inside and exterior of the constructing
• Inclusion of architectural drawings and renderings
• Inclusion of development images

There are 7 Initiatives of the Day every week and an additional 31 Featured Initiatives. Every Challenge of the Day is printed on Fb, Twitter and Instagram Tales, whereas every Featured Challenge is printed on Fb. Every Challenge of the Day additionally options in Architizer’s Weekly Initiatives E-newsletter and shared with 170,000 subscribers.

 

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We’re consistently search for the world’s finest architects to affix our neighborhood. If you need to grasp extra about this rating checklist and find out how your agency can obtain a presence on it, please don’t hesitate to succeed in out to us at editorial@architizer.com.