Levi's Plaza - Design

Design

Levi Strauss & Co. provided significant input into the development of the facility. Bill Valentine, a designer at HOK, said "Someone at Levi's said they wanted it to feel like a well-worn pair of blue jeans. And that's what we tried to do -- it's off the cuff, never symmetrical, it's easy-going and relaxed." Levi Strauss wanted the new complex to promote mixing of all classes of employees. At its previous Embarcadero facility, the building forced upper level and lower level employees to be located on different floors, so the groups could not meet each other in common areas. A large atrium in one of the buildings is placed so that employees of all ranks receive the same view, and not just the higher up employees. Decks providing views of the surrounding city were used to integrate the inside and outside areas.

Keiko Yamagami of Gensler and Associates said that the designs, which she said were buildings within larger buildings, gives the corridor the atmosphere of "small street in a little town." Each campus building houses a "mini plaza." Yamagami said that each one is "sort of like the den in a home." Contrasting materials, such as rubber tile flooring, set off major circulation areas within the campus. Yamagami says that the flooring, which has a pattern, uses colors that "were almost like an impressionist painting." She emphasized that it had "West Coast sunset colors" The campus also houses an exercise room and various kitchenettes with different themes. Yamagami said in 1989 that the "garden den," with furniture styled like those used in outdoor settings, was among the most popular. The Levi Strauss cafeteria has 30-foot (9.1 m) by 40-foot (12 m) pavilion spaces, each of which have distinct colors and identities. Yamagami said that the company "didn't want to have an institutionalized cafeteria, they wanted to have a cafeteria that felt like a restaurant."

Levi's Plaza incorporated the Italian Swiss Colony Building into its design, and the complex was designed to fit into the surrounding neighborhood. In 1991 David Armstrong of The Toronto Star said that at Levi's Plaza, the then-new red brick buildings "blend in with historic warehouses." The building was designed to respect the residents of Telegraph Hill, which provided a backdrop to Levi's Plaza.