UBER Mission Bay

The new headquarter of Uber, designed by New York City based architectural firm SHoP Architects, is currently being built in San Francisco (USA). The central element of the design are two cubic six-story and eleven-story structures with a transparent building shell connected by bridge structures. The load bearing system of the approximately 6.000m² main façade which does not serve as a thermal shell consists of hanging steel girders that act as a substructure for aluminum elements windows with dimensions of 4.37 x 1.52m each and operable windows.
While developing and planning the challenging façade system the major task was the implementation of high architectural demands to achieve a building envelope with a maximized transparency. The development of the façade structure also had to consider the extreme seismic stresses resulting from the geographical location as well as the resulting deformation and forces.