Fougeron Architecture, who recently completed the 400 Grove mixed-use in Hayes Valley, has left their mark again in the Bay Area in designing the new Kapor Center for Social Impact headquarters in downtown Oakland. The Kapor Center needed a new collaborative workspace to carry out their mission, which is to improve access to opportunity and stronger influence for historically underrepresented communities through investing in information technology and partnerships with like-minded nonprofits. 

Fougeron transformed the existing 1920s office building into a new workspace for the Center and its partner organizations. “The new headquarters had to be an architectural manifestation of the Kapor Center’s core values: connectivity, openness, and democracy,” the architects describe. Based on those values, the new Center's design is modern and harmonious, featuring open, flexible workspaces that are fit for collaboration.

“The LEED Gold building had to express the center’s vision for a connected, open, and democratic world, which is why the unified aim of the Kapor ethos is echoed through a circular volume at the heart of the structure,” Fougeron Architecture says. 

The circular volume serves as an organizing principle in linking the various floors, while providing separations in order to meet code and maintain privacy. An open staircase winds upward through the building's original three floors, all the way to the new fourth-floor addition.

You can check out Fougeron Architecture's other stunning NorCal projects in their Archinect firm profile. Also, they're currently hiring!