680 Folsom

For 680 Folsom, the project team utilized creative solutions and careful design to reinvent an aging commercial complex in the heart of San Francisco. Often, the trend in large-scale urban development is to demolish existing buildings and start anew, but 680 Folsom was transformed from the inside out. The original building, completed in 1964, was … Continued

Crown Zellerbach Headquarters

Crown Zellerbach Headquarters was the first International Style curtain-wall tower to be built in San Francisco, and has claimed a position as a lasting figure in the downtown streetscape. The project includes an epoch-making open floor design and a sweeping plaza layout. Occupying one-third of a triangular site, the building consists of a 20-story office … Continued

Upjohn Corporate Headquarters

Inspired by the courtyard layout of Gordon Bunshaft’s Connecticut General Life Insurance Headquarters, architect Bruce Graham designed the Upjohn building with a series of seven interior gardens landscaped with trees, pools, stones, and sculptures. Graham was also influenced by the architecture of his native Colombia, where homes contained central, open-air courtyards that flooded interior spaces … Continued

Taylor Street Apartments and Little Italy Branch Library

The Taylor Street Apartments and Little Italy Branch Library realizes an innovative approach to mixed-use development through the co-location of affordable housing and a public library branch. Accomplished through a public-private partnership with the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), the Chicago Public Library, and Related Midwest, the project includes 73 apartments and a 14,000-square-foot library. SOM … Continued

Greenwich Academy – Upper School

Founded in 1827, the Greenwich Academy is Connecticut’s oldest preparatory school for girls. Embracing the various ways students absorb information and the freedom of education fostered by the school, this new building is a study in flexibility. It appears to grow out of the landscape, with a green roof that extends from an existing lawn … Continued

Cleveland Clinic Florida Neurological Institute / Cancer Institute

The Egil and Pauline Braathen Center Neurological Institute and Cancer Institute (NICI) is the first project to stem from a long-range master plan for the Cleveland Clinic campus in Weston, Florida. The 145,000-square-foot center includes a neurological clinic and procedural suite, a rehabilitation gym, an infusion suite, a cancer clinic, and a radiation oncology area … Continued

Baccarat Hotel & Residences

Sky-high refinement Like a honed piece of exquisite glassware, Baccarat Hotel & Residences distinguishes itself within its surroundings through its formal restraint and focus on detail. Its exterior is a study in contrast. The tower’s 605-foot-tall east and west elevations—its main structural components—are sheathed in faceted, jet black aluminum panels, referencing the austerity and minimalism … Continued

New York World’s Fair, 1939

SOM was selected by the New York World’s Fair Commission to provide master planning and design coordination, as well as exhibit design, for the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City. The theme of the landmark event was “World of Tomorrow.” The fair presented perceived images of the future to approximately 60 million visitors. The … Continued

Almaty International Medical Center

The Almaty International Medical Center puts forth a new model of care for Kazakhstan’s healthcare sector. This pioneering facility is designed to accommodate future change and expansion to rapidly adapt to the demands of this evolving market. With the opportunity to capture a demographic that often seeks medical treatment outside the country, the center aims … Continued

Connecticut General Life Insurance Company Headquarters

Hartford, Connecticut, is well known as the city of insurance companies. When one of the oldest of these, the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, needed more space for business expansion in the 1950s, it decided to give up its headquarters in the center of town and erect a new building about five miles northward near … Continued