Originally built as a chat tool for a failed gaming company, Slack officially launched in 2013, and has since become the fastest growing start-up in the world with over 10 million users and valued at over $20 billion after going public this year.

Slack’s new San Francisco Headquarters is a design masterpiece by Studio O+A and Niteo Lighting who have taken the phrase “bringing the outdoors indoors” to new levels by channeling hiking life on the Pacific Crest Trail throughout its 10 floors of office space.  Each floor represents a different shift of terrain on the trail.  

Slack’s cofounder and CEO, Steward Butterfield, is a lifelong avid outdoorsman who routinely takes time to go off grid into the backcountry of the Pacific Crest Trail, which stretches from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon and Washington. It offers 2,650 in wilderness hiking trails that provide everything from the flat deserts of California to the Pacific Northwest’s forested mountains.

Each floor of the building is designed to evoke the wide range of topography experienced along the Trail, such as the first couple of floors imitating the varying levels of California desert landscapes, and other floors evoking the many forests or mountain lakes encountered, and culminating with the top floor representing the summits, the highest elevations of the Trail. Zaniboni Lighting’s Alba and Bongo fixtures make appearances in this project. Click through the gallery for a floor-by-floor tour.

Architects: Studio O+A


Lighting Designers: Niteo Lighting

Photographers: Garrett Rowland, Amy Young