First Peek: INSEAD's New San Francisco Campus

The front facade of INSEAD’s San Francisco hub on 224 Townsend St. has an Art Deco feel with the school’s colors

While the facility will largely be used for executive education programs, it will also be a home base for 50 MBA students who will be coming to the Bay Area for week-long field trips in April and October. INSEAD’s 180 Executive MBA students also are expected to come to the hub where four two-week-long elective courses will be taught each year.

An open second-floor space for gatherings at the new INSEAD San Francisco hub

INSEAD made the decision to come to San Francisco in 2017, finding this location early in 2018. After signing a seven year lease for the space, renovations on what had been a rather drab office building and garage commenced in the summer of 2018. Workers stripped off wall coverings to expose the original cinder block in the high-ceiling rooms with exposed plumbing and ductwork.

One of six breakout rooms for team meetings, this second-floor room overlooks the vast event space

INSEAD also hired a New York City-based muralist and designer, Timothy Goodman, who painted an elaborate mural on the gray cinderblock walls out on the street. The black on gray design features the school’s other campuses, along with the school’s values from “impact” to “solidarity.”

The flexible 38-seat classroom

The move to the Bay Area was overseen by Dean of Innovation Peter Zemsky who has overseen the development of the hub. “As tech innovation goes global, business leaders everywhere need to rapidly transform their strategies and organizations,” he said in a statement. “At the same time, tech leaders need to adapt to the dramatically shifting expectations about the impact of their products on societies worldwide. INSEAD is uniquely placed to facilitate this learning through our global faculty and network.”