BAR Architects & Interiors

BAR Architects & Interiors is a San Francisco architecture and interiors practice working across hospitality, multifamily residential, mixed-use and institutional projects, with a long record in historic renovation on the West Coast. The firm handled the architecture on the restoration of the Huntington Hotel on Nob Hill, the 1924 Georgian-style building at California and Taylor that reopened in spring 2026 after a full rebuild of its 143 suites, public spaces, the Big 4 Restaurant and the Nob Hill Spa. Work of that kind, inside an occupied historic district with almost no staging area, is a recurring condition in the firm’s San Francisco portfolio. BAR pairs its architecture practice with an in-house interiors group.

BAR runs two collaborating studios — San Francisco at 77 Geary Street and Los Angeles at 500 Molino Street — staffed as one practice rather than two branch offices. The work splits across four areas the firm names outright: custom homes and estates, multifamily residential, hospitality, and educational and cultural projects. The estates practice is the part least visible from the hotel and mixed-use portfolio, and it is where the firm’s interest in natural materials and site-specific siting reads most plainly.

Interiors are not a bolt-on. BAR carries architecture and interior design as a single full-service offer, which means finish, furniture and lighting decisions get made against the same drawing set as the building envelope. On hospitality projects, where the guest-room mockup usually drives the schedule, that removes a coordination seam that otherwise costs weeks.

Record and recognition

The practice has collected more than 190 design awards over its history, including a Presidential Citation and the California Firm of the Year award from the American Institute of Architects. It was founded in 1966 and now employs roughly 70 people across the two studios.

How the firm describes its approach

BAR frames its work around the relationship between a building and its site, contextual sensitivity, and rigorous exploration of ideas rather than a signature look. It also emphasizes technical depth built up through experience and a collaborative process run with clients and consultants together. In practice that reads as buildings that defer to their locale — a position that carries weight in San Francisco’s regulated historic districts and on the hillside and coastal sites where much of the residential work sits.

The firm publishes standing commitments to wellness, sustainability, equity and resilience, and runs internal programs it calls +Future, Social Impact, Inclusive by Design and Life at BAR. Projects run throughout California, across the United States and internationally. Marketing and project inquiries go through the San Francisco studio at 415 293 5700; the Los Angeles studio can be reached at 213 349 0180.