Following our previous visit to San Francisco-based Richard Beard Architects, we are keeping our Meet Your Next Employer series in the city this week to explore the work of WRNS Studio.

Founded in San Francisco in 2005, the firm operates across three principles: beauty, sustainability, and a positive contribution to the public realm. “We established our studio to provide a platform upon which we could freely explore our ideas and craft,” co-founder Sam Nunes told our Studio Snapshot series back in 2020. “We wanted to be a part of the community of architects seeking to redefine the relationship between the built and the natural environments and between the private and public realms.”

Over on Archinect Jobs, the firm is currently hiring for several positions to join their San Francisco office. For candidates interested in applying for a position, or anybody interested in learning about the firm’s output, we have rounded up three headquarters for well-known tech companies by WRNS Studio that exemplify the studio’s ethos.

Airbnb San Francisco, San Francisco, California

For Airbnb’s San Francisco headquarters, WRNS Studio oversaw the expansion of the company’s existing base on the fourth floor of a historic warehouse building in the city’s South of Market neighborhood. The brief called for a workplace to reflect the company’s ethos: “scrappy, design-forward entrepreneurs with a simple idea of bringing the world together.”

The third floor of the warehouse was redesigned to hold the company’s entire San Francisco workforce. To ensure maximum flexibility, WRNS Studio developed a kit of parts that “transitions and scales easily from the highly public civic arena to the more private and personal spaces.” The large floorplate was organized as “human-scaled neighborhoods” while a series of workplace modules accommodate groups of 1-3 (cave), 4-8 (hideout), 7-12 (listing), and 12-20 (garage).

Adobe Utah Campus, Lehi, Utah

Located on a long, narrow site in the Utah Valley, the Adobe Utah Campus has been designed to be “an open, collaborative environment that brings brand expression outward in a public-facing way.” The campus’ four-story office buildings adopt a long, narrow massing, with finned facades that move from opaque to transparent as people pass by.

“Emblematic of the company’s values of transparency and connection, a grand atrium acts as an all-hands space, town center, festival area, and place of quiet reflection,” WRNS Studio explains. “Spaces for work, play, exercise, and eating spin-out from the atrium to engage the surrounding mountains and valleys; these vistas have become integral to the everyday experiences of visitors and staff. In turn, the expansive glass façades make visible the activities within — not only people working, but also dining, exercising, or playing basketball.”

Intuit Marine Way Building, Mountain View, California

For Intuit’s Marine Way Building in Silicon Valley, WRNS Studio sought to offer an “antidote to the insular campuses still going up throughout the Valley,” by creating a “human-centered, urban-minded, deep green workplace” driven by sustainability, public engagement, and warmth. In collaboration with interior design lead Clive Wilkinson Architects, the firm has delivered the first phase of the campus comprising a 185,400-square-foot building across four floors.

The scheme is anchored by a large four-story atrium with a capacity for 500 people, with each landing and bleacher stair along the atrium connecting to a large “living room” workspace. In addition to intimate breakout spaces such as balconies and casual soft-furniture settings, larger “workspace neighborhoods” are located at the edge of the atrium to generate a consistent buzz of activity throughout the workday.

Meet Your Next Employer is one of a number of ongoing weekly series showcasing the opportunities available on our industry-leading job board. Our Job Highlights series looks at intriguing and topical employment opportunities currently available on Archinect Jobs, while our weekly roundups curate job opportunities by location, career level, and job description.