David and Lucile Packard Foundation

By Asad Syrkett
"The central narrative of the Packard Foundation is that it began around David and Lucile's dining-room table," explains Brad Jacobson, senior associate at San Francisco–based architecture and planning office EHDD. So in designing a new headquarters for the 48-year-old philanthropic organization in Los Altos, California, the firm wanted to create a hybrid workplace that felt more like a scaled-up home than a downsized office block. "The foundation said no to anything that smelled at all of slick office building," says Jacobson.

The result is something between a house and a global institution's sleek command center, fitting digs for an organization established by the "Packard" half of computer-products and technology powerhouse Hewlett-Packard. The David and Lucile Packard Foundation's mission is to "work with partners around the world to improve the lives of children, families, and communities," according to its website. Since its modest beginnings in 1964, the foundation has provided grants for efforts ranging from sustainable fisheries to health-care initiatives for underserved children.