After more than a decade in Mill Valley, California, Glassdoor moved its global headquarters to an office tower in San Francisco’s South of Market Area to give its Bay Area employees a central location that better represented the firm’s fun, vibrant culture while embodying the city’s dynamic history and personality. 

Tasked with shaping two floors of a 1960s-era 24-story International style high-rise, our design team collaborated to integrate architecture, furnishings, and graphics to create a custom color palette that has the warmth, grit, and texture to complement the architecture and accents of the furniture. The expansive color palette was used to represent the colorful culture of San Francisco while weaving together simple and subtle architecture to create a fun, fresh, and unique space.

Interlocking circulation loops, custom-designed supergraphics on the walls, glass conference walls, and a curated graphic floor system helped promote a thematic wayfinding approach, bringing elements specific to San Francisco and central to Glassdoor’s core values. The reception area was designed to showcase that tech is expanding, and Glassdoor is expanding alongside it, embracing global connectivity. 

They wanted their employees and guests to feel a sense of arrival, and our team solved this by artfully implementing their mission statement and company logo upon entrance. Through an interactive art installation, consisting of moving light panels, our team wanted to abstractly showcase that employees are in charge of their own future. This sense of interactivity within the workplace is a rarity that we deemed essential to expose. 

Our team collaborated with local artists to embrace the city of San Francisco and showcase the culture it has to offer. Throughout, the bright colors and graphics lend a sense of authenticity with their handmade feel, while natural materials humanize the rigidity of the International Style building. The use of exposed and painted wood joists in the ceiling recalls the wood trusses of the original Mill Valley space, utilizing the gridded structure of the new building. 

In the entry zone, Glassdoor’s mission statement is spelled out in raised letters on the wall; long, linear light fixtures overhead align with the building grid, which also inspired the organization of the floor plan. Recognizing the importance of company culture to Glassdoor, spaces for socialization and fun were also a key component to the design. Hidden within a phone room adjacent to a central hallway, is a door disguised as a wall that leads to the office Speakeasy. 

This warmly lit, secret room with dark finishes and traditional tin ceiling tiles provides a small bar for the office, and a place where employees can disconnect from work and reconnect with each other.