Lighthouse for the Blind

Tenant Improvement

This 40,000 square foot project spans three floors of a high rise in downtown San Francisco and encompasses a wide range of services that the LightHouse offers its clients, including on-site optometry exam rooms, a retail store showcasing adaptive technology devices, training rooms for hands-on learning of Braille and adaptive technology, a 12-station training kitchen, a large multi-purpose room for LightHouse and community events, administrative offices, audio and video recording facilities, conference rooms with state-of-the-art video-conferencing technology, and 11 dorm rooms where up to 29 clients can stay on-site for immersive training and community-building.

Acoustics were modeled through digital animation to find a sound level that is warm but not overbearing, where cane taps and footfalls— human or canine —enliven the space. The team clad many of the public areas’ walls and ceilings in slatted hemlock (installed by California Drywall), chosen for its acoustical and visual warmth.