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Envelope

@envelopead

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A California-based architecture and activations studio. A certified B corp since 2023.

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Guess what? The Hayes Valley Carnival is back at PROXY!

Continuing with our established tradition of activating urban spaces and the building of community, we are excited to announce that our temporary activation project PROXY @proxysf will once again host the biggest yearly event in the Hayes Valley neighborhood of San Francisco.

The 115th Hayes Valley Carnival
Saturday, July 18th
From 12PM to 4PM
Circus Performances at 1PM & 3PM!

@ PROXY
432 Octavia St @ Hayes St
FREE and OPEN TO ALL!

Presenting Circus Bella @circusbella, a modern twist on the one-ring circus, overflowing with heart and soul!

Experience the hijinks and hilarity of AH HA! — a dazzling array of daring feats and madcap mayhem. This exhilarating 60-minute show promises to delight and astonish children of all ages in a cherished family event. Known for their incredible acrobats, aerialists, jugglers, and clowns, Circus Bella will perform to live music by the sensational Circus Bella All-Star Band!

Come early for Carnival Games, Face Painting, and Food!

See our LINK IN BIO for more info!

🎥: @annehamersky

#circusbella #proxysf #hayesvalley #hayesvalleysf by @envelopead

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3 months ago

Can you believe it? It has been a whole TEN YEARS since ENVELOPE started screening free films for the community at our activation project PROXY (@proxysf)! With our 2025 Fall Film Fest we celebrated a decade of bringing people together for a wonderfully unique experience of watching movies outside under the stars.

Through each of our Fall and Spring Festivals, we work to curate a range of contemporary independent films that we think San Franciscans (and the wider Bay Area) will enjoy. Our selection seeks to lift up voices and share stories that would otherwise be missed by many. Every screening is free and open to all, with the expressed intention of lowering the barrier to access important and meaningful films.

For our 2026 PROXY Spring Series, we continue to celebrate our ten year anniversary with an incredible selection of films celebrating personal growth and the wisdom of experience. From a ping pong hustler trying to conquer the world to a curious three-year-old discovering the world for the first time, from one father struggling to provide for his family to another reconnecting with a family he left behind, the characters in our selection of films undergo a search for meaning within themselves and the greater world. Join us for a film (or five!) to dive deep into the human experience, to laugh, cry, and celebrate the power of cinema that brings us closer together – to each other and to our very selves.

The festival runs every Friday from March 27th through April 24th. These FREE evening films begin at 7:30pm and 8:00pm.

MAR 27 : Marty Supreme by Josh Safdie, 2025
APR 03 : No Other Choice by Park Chan-wook, 2025
APR 10 : Sentimental Value by Joachim Trier, 2025
APR 17 : Little Amélie or the Character of Rain by Maïlys Vallade & Liane-Cho Han, 2025
APR 24 : Arco by Ugo Bienvenu, 2025

Please visit @proxysf for more info! taken in Proxy SF by @envelopead

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7 months ago

We are excited to be part of the inspiring Larkin Street Revival project in San Francisco's beautiful and diverse Tenderloin neighborhood. The Larkin Street Revival is a partnership-driven initiative bringing near-term investments to Larkin Street, a diverse and lively commercial corridor that centers Little Saigon's Southeast Asian cultural heritage and embodies San Francisco’s creative spirit through art and entertainment offerings. Immediate street improvements include upgraded lighting, decorative security gates, daily sidewalk cleaning, and cultural activations — all to help bolster the resilience of Larkin’s small businesses.

On Monday, we attended the ribbon cutting ceremony for the first physical improvement designed by ENVELOPE – multi-colored decorative security gates that protect small business storefronts and beautify the neighborhood both day and night. It was an honor to have both San Francisco's Mayor Daniel Lurie (@danielluriesf) and District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood (@bilalmahmood) celebrate these new improvements and express their unwavering support for the Larkin Revival initiative.

Thank you to San Francisco’s Office of Economic & Workforce Development (OEWD) for funding the decorative security gates on the 400 Block of Larkin and to the Tenderloin Community Benefit District (@tlcbd) for their business owner engagement, community empowerment, sidewalk cleaning, and stewardship on Larkin Street and across the entire neighborhood! Thank you as well to One Hat One Hand (@onehatonehand) for their partnership in fabricating these beautiful and durable gates! A huge thank you to Chris Larsen for his vision toward a more equitable and vibrant San Francisco and his generous donation to fund the core efforts of the Larkin Revival project. taken in Tenderloin Neighborhood by @envelopead

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8 months ago

We’re excited to share that the first iteration of ENVELOPE's newly designed KINDRED2 planter and seating system has been deployed at PROXY and Hayes Promenade! KINDRED2, an extension ENVELOPE's KINDRED planter and seating system, is a modular, re-combinable urban greening system allowing for "popup park" style activations of streets, sidewalks and plazas across San Francisco and beyond. The system allows cities to create temporary, micro-local public green spaces, fostering community gathering environments and bringing warmth and life to our streetscapes.

The first deployment of the KINDRED2 planters is at PROXY (@proxysf), ENVELOPE's temporary activation of two parcels in the heart of the Hayes Valley neighborhood in San Francisco, and at Hayes Promenade (@hayespromenade), a "streets for the people" activations program of Hayes St (between Octavia and Gough) happening weekly on Fridays and Saturdays. The entire ENVELOPE team came out to assemble the planters and plant Live Oaks, Manzanita, California Lilac, Coffeeberry, Pacific Wax Myrtle and a wide range of native companion plantings! A big thank you to Luke Spray and the Civic Joy Fund (@civic_joy_fund) for their generous support of this initiative to make San Francisco an even more beautiful and livable city!

@hvnasf @bilalmahmood @explorehayesvalley taken in Hayes Valley, San Francisco by @envelopead

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a year ago

Two of ENVELOPE's favorite projects, Hunters Point Shoreline and PROXY @proxysf, are part of Center for Architecture + Design's @centerarchdesignsf new exhibition titled The ReImagined City: San Francisco 2000-2025! This exhibition explores how San Francisco’s built environment has transformed over the past 25 years. Through snapshots of new and renewed places, it reveals changing patterns in how we live, work, move, and gather, offering glimpses of both familiar icons and unexpected spaces in a city that is always evolving.

The Hunters Point Shoreline is a public open space born out of a far-reaching public access, interim use, and community engagement strategy for the former Hunters Point Power Plant site. For this historically disenfranchised community, improving the shoreline edge of this site represents an important step forward in a decades-long struggle for environmental justice.

PROXY is a temporary open space activation of two vacant parcels in the heart of San Francisco’s Hayes Valley neighborhood. A placeholder for more permanent development, PROXY employs a more nimble model for development—a flexible urbanism—for the world’s rapidly changing cities.

See the exhibition from September 4, 2025 – January 19, 2026 at:

Center for Architecture + Design
140 Sutter Street, SF, CA 94104
Monday + Friday | 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Tuesday – Thursday | 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM

LINK IN BIO for more info! taken in San Francisco, California by @envelopead

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a year ago

ENVELOPE has been chosen as one of the top 400 U.S. and one of the top 48 California residential architecture firms by @Forbes as part of their 2025 Forbes Best-in-State Residential Architects list! The list is "a collection of U.S. architects setting the high-bar mark of excellence—and the ones you can turn to for your residential design-and-construction needs, no matter where in the country you call home." Check out the full list, LINK IN BIO

Hollywood Hills House built by @dowbuilt
forest<>house built by Axelson Builders
Valley Ridge House interior with @charlesdelisleoffice
Photography by @matthewmillmanphoto and @richardbarnes taken in Berkeley, California by @envelopead

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a year ago

Check out this fun and lively entryway we created for the SEADC's Tenderloin Youth Center in San Francisco! The Southeast Asian Development Center @seadcsf is a nonprofit organization dedicated to lifting children, youth and families from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam out of poverty. We worked closely with the Center's team to design an entryway with a rich and vibrant dot pattern that communicates a space made especially for children and their families. One of our favorite features of the project is the colorful display that appears on the walls and floor of the Center with the passing of the afternoon light. See our full case study for the project, LINK IN BIO!

The SEADC Tenderloin Youth Center project was made possible by a generous grant made through the Tenderloin Community Benefit District @tlcbd

#tenderloinsf taken in Tenderloin Neighborhood by @envelopead

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a year ago

🤹 Join us for the 114th Hayes Valley Carnival at PROXY!

At ENVELOPE we are passionate about activating underutilized urban spaces and the building of community, and we feel fortunate to be able to continue to bring amazing and free public programming to the Hayes Valley neighborhood through our ongoing temporary activation project PROXY! @proxysf

The 114th Hayes Valley Carnival
Saturday, July 19th
From 12PM to 4PM
Circus Performances at 1PM & 3PM!

@ PROXY
432 Octavia St @ Hayes St
FREE and OPEN TO ALL!

Presenting Circus Bella @circusbella, a modern twist on the one-ring circus, overflowing with heart and soul!

Experience the hypnotic hijinks and hilarity of HOOPLA! — a captivating blend of circus enchantment and madcap mayhem. This exhilarating 60-minute show promises to delight and astonish children of all ages in a cherished family event. Watch in awe as the vibrant and colorful Circus Bella Company — a diverse troupe of acrobats, aerialists, jugglers and clowns — performs to the lively tunes of the 6-piece Circus Bella All-Star Band.

Come early to enjoy Carnival Games, Face Painting, and Food!

See our LINK IN BIO for more info!

#circusbella #proxysf #hayesvalley #hayesvalleysf taken in Hayes Valley by @envelopead

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a year ago

We are thrilled to announce that our very first Farmers First poultry house conversion project is live in rural Alabama!

Farmers First reimagines our food system in a way that centers the needs of farmers and the environment, converting former poultry production structures into greenhouses that grow food efficiently, year-round, and at low cost.

We sat down with ENVELOPE partner and architect Lex Phelan and product designer Sebastian Hoek to discuss why architects and designers would create such a project?

Lex: As an architect it's really satisfying to give new and higher purpose to a building, and especially to witness how that transformation impacts not only those who use the space but also the wider community. There are millions of poultry production facilities across the US, which were built for a purpose, but when they're no longer being used for that purpose, they're absolutely unnecessary and a burden on the farmer. We are thrilled to use our unique skills as architects and designers to develop repeatable adaptive reuse strategies for these structures, and to collaborate with other organizations like Animal Outlook who are also working on innovative ways to transform the food system.

Seb: As a designer who has worked on farms in the past, I was intrigued by the idea of creating a grow system that is efficient and able to produce a lot of food in a relatively small footprint. The deep water culture hydroponic grow system we have developed for Farmers First is a much more economical use of these buildings compared to growing animals or growing crops outside. The project also has the added value of being able to address humanity's concerns with the future of the climate's impact on our food supply, since the highly controlled grow environment inside greenhouses is a lot less impacted by the weather and external factors.

To learn more, please check out our case study for Farmers First, LINK IN BIO!

#adaptivereuse #hydroponicfarming #greenhousefarming taken in Alabama, USA by @envelopead

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a year ago

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a year ago

We introduce to you Coffee + Juice Kiosks.

Two unique moments of congregation, refreshment, and delight.

Dubbed “The Farm,” this office campus in Fremont, CA incorporates extensive promenades and pathways between buildings and through groves of trees, lush landscapes, and recreational areas designed by @rhaa.studio.
With their unique designs and bright expressive colors, the Coffee + Juice Kiosks stand out along the circuit and offer key amenities and gathering spaces for employees and visitors alike.

#design #sustainabl #architecture #urban #kiosk #designinspo taken in Fremont, California by @envelopead

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3 years ago

Congrats to chef Thomas Keller @chefthomaskeller and his team at @_tfl_ for earning three stars from @michelinguide California this year!

French Laundry’s famed California restaurant was inspired by the "complex choreography of the kitchen,” wrote Anna Fixsen on @metropolismag in 2018.

It was a pleasure to work on this design project in collaboration with @snohetta, and witness French Laundry’s continued success over the years!”

///Images by michaelgrimmphoto taken in The French Laundry by @envelopead

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4 years ago