Lydia Lee

For a new café, an architect re-engineers the DNA of the California Academy of Sciences next door.

The prosaic city garage at 690 Folsom Street in downtown San Francisco had been neglected for decades, but a recent makeover is attracting attention.

As with culinary innovations like Korean beef tacos or the Cronut, architecture often benefits from cross-cultural influences.

In San Francisco, the latest tech office has the cultural prominence a lavish restaurant or fancy boutique would elsewhere. As the battle to entice technical talent continues, designers strive to outdo the competition with their imaginative environments.

Atlanta-based developer Jamestown wanted its Pacific Place office building, at 22 Fourth Street in downtown San Francisco, to appeal to young tech workers with a lobby similar to that of a hip hotel.

For a new caf', an architect re-engineers the DNA of the California Academy of Sciences next door.

For the first permanent home of SFJAZZ in its 35-year history, organization founder and executive artistic director Randall Kline sought to bridge that dichotomy.