Project Name: Dropbox Headquarters
Project Location: San Francisco, CA
Design Firm: AvroKO
Photo Credit: Garrett Rowland
Dropbox Headquarters
As one of the leading Silicon Valley tech companies, Dropbox serves millions of users each year by allowing them to easily access and share their files and collaborate on projects. To better reflect the open and collaborative nature of this service, Dropbox recently revamped its 300,000-square-foot San Francisco headquarters into a new, breathtaking office.
While the newly airy, open, and flexible office spaces are now ideal for sudden breakout sessions and meet-ups, the food hall and café are the heartbeat of this tech giant’s headquarters. AvroKO, known for their provocative architecture and environments, was tapped to design these food-centered spaces. Channeling the idea of “neighborhoods” within the office to bring people together, AvroKO designed these areas to be multipurpose—equally appopriate for dining, meetings, brainstorms, and more. Taking inspiration form one of the company’s mottos, “Sweat the details,” the design focuses on small features, using individually-crafted furniture and custom lighting to create flexible spaces within a variety of moods. In true collaborative fashion, Goodshop, AvroKO’s in-house custom furniture and lighting division that works with leading furniture and lighting manufacturers, turned to Troy Custom Design Studio to execute its custom lighting design concepts for the project. They designed; we built. The result: Goodshop by Troy.
A beautiful, sculptural custom brass chandelier hangs in the main entry of the food hall, which boasts six main food stations divided by a variety of screens made of transparent linen materials. Some screens are constructed around main banquettes and are adjustable to create pockets ideal for a private gathering with a coworker or a professional presentation or meeting. The handcrafted lighting in the juice bar resembles a modern take on old street lamps, drawing from the neighborhood concept, while the entryway chandelier has adjustable frames that slide up and down on tracks in a subtle nod to the transit lines of San Francisco’s famous Muni Metro.
The café, Tuck Shop, is designed to evoke a residential feel. It’s a place of comfort, with each furniture group possesssing an eclectic mix of chairs, floor rugs, and accessories you’d expect to see in a living room. Custom pendant globes in handblown glass illuminate the café and shine down on the café’s coffee roaster, quite a presence with a blackened steel perimeter. A much-needed upgrade from the austere office break rooms of yore, these new spaces help usher in an exciting future for the evolving workplace.
![]()
