Step into Hollo Café, the food service amenity at Redwood LIFE, San Francisco’s largest life science and innovation campus with over 20 buildings and one million square feet of commercial real estate. The Hollo Café, operated by Bon Appetit Management Company, serves as a meeting space for tenants and guests to enjoy a cup of coffee and fast casual contemporary California cuisine. The design team created specific seating zones and furniture vignettes to accommodate different experiences such as a morning coffee, lunch with a coworker, or happy hour with the team.

Habitec Architecture & Interior Design in collaboration with Peter Christensen, FCSI (Foodservice Consultants Society International) of Christensen Consultants was tasked with creating this memorable and elevated space that serves as a unique companion to the campus, complementing the existing communal areas. This purposeful design utilized natural materials to create this warm and timeless café, which includes a geometric wood ceiling with inverted pyramids and integrated lighting.

Habitec worked alongside Cosentino to specify the countertop and flooring surfaces that perfectly aligned with the design intent. Silestone Ethereal Glow shines as the café’s countertop and backsplash, a light and bright colorway with warm and subtle veining that brings life and texture to the palette.

Looking down, one can appreciate the Dekton Kreta flooring, chosen for its concrete look to serve as a canvas for the other elements to shine. Kreta was specified in a large format to allow fewer breaks and grout lines with easy cleanability. The coolness of the floor contrasts and balances the wood in the ceiling and the warm veining pulls the color scheme together.

Silestone Ethereal Glow and Dekton Kreta were a match made in heaven, but their beauty is only the beginning. Durability was a priority in material selection and specification, and Silestone and Dekton exceeded expectations. The surfaces are also approved by the Health Department to be suitable in a food and service environment. With Silestone and Dekton, Hollo Café will remain a beautiful place for people to gather and connect for years to come.

“The Cosentino product rep was an incredible support to Habitec’s design team during the project. She was an essential partner in our search for a very particular material that met programming requirements for food service use but still fit our look and feel. As the project progressed, the Cosentino team was proactive in handling unexpected cost and lead time issues and went above and beyond to secure the product” explains Karolina Glinka, NCIDQ, LEED AP, Vice President & Design Director Habitec Architecture & Interior Design .