So, I know this building has been up for a while, but it was the first time I got to experience it….and it was weird.  Partly cool, but mostly weird.  Which building, you ask?  Why the new(ish) San Francisco Federal Office Building designed by Morphosis/Thom Mayne.

Dedicated in July 2007, the building is the outcome of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA)’s Design Excellence program. It’s an 18-story building located roughly where the Tenderloin, Union Square, and SOMA neighborhods come together….on some pretty seedy blocks!  Many props to GSA for building in a challenging neighborhood – but,  it’s certainly not a place I’d like to walk alone pretty much any time of the day.  And I’m from a big(ish) city!

Some of the things I really liked about the building:

• Green, green, green
• Pretty nifty looking from the outside
• Elevators that stop every third floor (forces your lazy bum to walk up or down)
• Sky walk (ok, this is a little scary, but on the 11th & 12th floors, you can go outside)
• Inexpensive(ish) but still looks really nice (~$250/SF)
• Clean lines, simple (I’m a modern kind of gal at heart)
• Creative and artistic security barriers instead of ugly concrete planters and bollards
• Gorgeous cafeteria
• Appealling coffee bar
• Great conferencing space

Some of the things I didn’t like/thought were weird:

• Windows on the doors to the suites – felt like I was in some sort of scary lab facility.
• Complete and total lack of color in the public realm - everything was ship-metal grey.  I felt like I was in a big, airy submarine.  Other people thought it was a bit like a jail.  I understand that it looks really nice in a photograph, but it’s not a space where you want to be, really!
• No people.  Seriously.  We were there on a Wednesday from 9 to noon.  I did not see very many people at all – no one milling around the lobby (which seems like a great open space for lunch), no one outside hanging out (even though it was a beautiful day), no one using the stairs (despite the elevator trickery)
• Vertigo.  I’m not terribly afraid of heights, but, wow!  Some of the spaces in this building freaked me out.  And not just the skywalk (although that was scary).  There are also balconies/mezzanines that are similarly high and scary.  And let’s not forget the floor-to-ceiling windows at the stairwell!  Yikes!!

LIKE: recycling everywhere!

LIKE: Floor-skipping elevators

LIKE: stairs

LIKE: Kick-butt views from skywalk (hello SF bay!)

DISLIKE: Scary as hell looking straight down in the open air on skywalk

DISLIKE: shady neighborhood (although the neighborhood in view isn't as shady as that directly around)

DISLIKE: Suite doors (sorry for the terrible photo)

Main image source: Wikipedia; the rest are from my craptastic cell phone camera