Rooted in Craft: Notion San Francisco

Centrally located on Market Street near Union Square and the iconic cable car turntable, the Monadnock Building, a landmarked 10-story tower completed just one year after the city’s devastating 1906 earthquake, now houses Notion’s new headquarters. IA was tapped to transform the first and second floors into a suite of interconnected spaces to better reflect the company’s mature growth stage, serving employees and visiting guests with an elevated all-hands lounge, café, exterior courtyard, and grand staircase.

From the outset, the design team worked closely with Notion to establish a shared vocabulary and ruleset, using analog methods like hand-drawn sketches to translate early conceptual thinking and guide architectural objectives. IA prioritized warm, approachable patterns and materials that reflected and enhanced the building’s existing use of natural materials such as burnished brass and raw concrete. A close study of local landmarks, like the historic Claremont Club & Spa in the neighboring Berkeley Hills, informed a sense of permanence and regional vernacular.

For Notion, this space functions both as a dedicated home base for its growing Bay Area team and as a physical celebration of what makes the company unique. Everything is designed in service of craft, whether digital (coding, yes) or hands-on (crafting, collaborating, inventing, and making). While many tech firms might traditionally lean into sleek, futuristic finishes, this office is designed specifically for Notion’s employees, looking to the past for inspiration on how they can work better in the future

On the first floor, a grand staircase with built-in banquettes, custom-designed by IA, opens onto an expansive all-hands area. Envisioned as the nerve center of the office, this community hub features a revitalized bar, reception, and lounge, giving employees an informal place to gather and collaborate. Just off the all-hands area, an exterior courtyard has been redesigned to offer a private respite from screens.

Upstairs on the second floor, a suite of specialized spaces provides a functional response to the company’s expanding slate of cultural and amenity offerings. Among the IA-designed areas are a podcast studio, a storage zone for company merchandise and deliveries, and a dedicated training area. A library and deep-focus room provide employees with a quiet retreat for concentrated work.

Nearby, open workstations are separated by translucent curtains, deftly hung between work zones to preserve privacy while providing flexible room-dividing solutions. A collection of diffused lighting supplies the office with a warm, comfortable glow, while signature reds and gauzy neutrals play off the tonal shading to subtly transform elements like wayfinding signage into warmly branded features. Custom wood ceiling elements, bespoke wainscoting, and hardwood millwork anchor the space throughout.

Adaptive reuse was a central focus throughout the project for IA, which unearthed and preserved several original hallmarks of the Monadnock Building’s 20th-century glory. Castaway bar tops discovered in the basement were repurposed as standing drink ledges, while structural columns were stripped of outdated fire-retardant coatings to reveal their historic character. In the first-floor elevator lobby, original marble flooring was uncovered beneath layers of cracked linoleum.

Notion’s headquarters expansion marks a significant step in the ongoing revitalization of San Francisco’s historic downtown. Long a bustling hub for office workers, tourists, and pedestrians, continued investment in thoughtfully designed post-pandemic workspaces is shaping a new chapter for the area, striking a vital balance between honoring its past and embracing a progressive vision for the city’s urban core.