Mission Rock is a 10-acre mixed-use waterfront neighborhood that has transformed San Francisco's former industrial waterfront into a new place to work, play, and live. Designed collaboratively by Henning Larsen, Studio Gang, WORKac, MVRDV, and SCAPE, and delivered through a public-private partnership between the San Francisco Giants, Tishman Speyer, and the Port of San Francisco, the neighborhood has been occupied since 2024, establishing a new framework for civic life in San Francisco and reflecting an authentic sense of California's cultural and natural heritage.
The neighborhood includes more than 500 homes and 770,000 ft² of retail and office space on San Francisco's Central Waterfront, including the new home of Visa's Market Support Center, also designed by our New York studio.
Henning Larsen is an international studio for architecture, landscape, and urbanism. They work at the nexus of creativity and experimentation, looking always to the lasting impact on communities and their environments. Henning Larsen became part of Ramboll in 2019.
Receiving the ULI Americas Award for Excellence for Phase One of Mission Rock is an honor, and a reflection of what four design teams set out to do together: put community, resilience, and connection to the waterfront at the center of the design.
Principal, Design Director
Striving to remain human-scaled despite its 13 stories, the design of the Visa building breaks down the scale of the large commercial block to a smaller ‘neighborhood’ with carved out smaller bays creating a dynamic massing and humanistic streetscape. Jason O'Rear, 2024
The development also sets a new standard for resilient waterfront design: the site was raised to accommodate 66 inches of projected sea level rise, a district-wide blackwater recycling system was installed, and a thermal district energy system reduces carbon emissions across the site. This commitment to sustainability earned Mission Rock LEED for Neighborhood Development Gold certification in 2021.
The ULI Americas Award for Excellence is a highly sought-after accolade in urban design, celebrating projects and studios that demonstrate exceptional innovation and impact. Mission Rock was recognized at the 2026 ULI Americas Awards on the 29th July in Washington.
“What struck the jury most was the range of partnership structures behind these projects: public, private, and nonprofit partners coming together in ways that wouldn’t have been possible for any one of them to deliver alone,” says Robyn Brown, 2026 ULI Americas Awards for Excellence Jury Chair. “These winners show what’s still achievable when partners bring discipline, creativity, and a shared commitment to the communities they’re building for.”
Daniel Baumann
Design Director
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Architecture and landscape
Architecture, Landscape and Urbanism
As our cities and populations grow, designing for regenerative systems, decarbonization, healthy living, and resiliency within the urban realm is more crucial than ever.