Sunset Oakland office. Photo: Spencer Toy
Sunset’s new Oakland offices at 55 Harrison St. in Jack London Square. Photo: Spencer Toy
Sunset’s new Oakland offices at 55 Harrison St. in Jack London Square. Photo: Spencer Toy

The Sunset publishing group has moved into its new Jack London Square offices, having relocated from its home of 64 years in Menlo Park, and the venerable magazine is gearing up to unveiling its test kitchen, wine cellar and photo studios in spring 2016.

Nosh reported in June that Sunset would move its headquarters to Oakland after its parent company, Time Inc., sold Sunset’s seven-acre Cliff May-designed Menlo Park campus to Embarcadero Capital Partners, a San Francisco real-estate investment and management company, for a reported $78 million.

The magazine’s new offices, at 55 Harrison St., were designed by San Francisco architects RMW, and comprise 20,000 square-feet on the second floor of a mixed-use building which will include the Water Street Market, an artisan food marketplace being developed by Carlin Company, the team behind San Francisco’s Ferry Building Marketplace and Napa’s Oxbow Public Market.

Irene Edwards. Photo: Thomas Story
Sunset editor-in-chief Irene Edwards. Photo: Thomas Story

“Our staff is thrilled to move into such a vibrant, inviting neighborhood. We’re having a great time seeking out our favorite new coffee spots, food trucks, small businesses, lunchtime walks, and more —and meeting all the neighbors who’ve welcomed us along the way,” Irene Edwards, Sunset’s editor-in-chief, said in a prepared statement.

Edwards, who served as executive editor of Sunset from 2004-2008, was named editor-in-chief in September. She took over from Peggy Northrop who had only been in the position for two and a half years. Sunset said Northrop chose to leave to devote her time to digital projects, including her own startup, Shebooks.

In addition to its new flagship Oakland offices, Sunset will have a presence in California wine country at Cornerstone, a public garden, event and retail space in Sonoma. Sunset will have its main test garden and outdoor kitchen at Cornerstone, and also host events there.

Sunset says it will unveil its test kitchen, “the heart of the Sunset office and its most highly anticipated feature” in the spring of 2016. “Some of the Western United State’s most iconic recipes have been developed in the Sunset test kitchen, which is recognized for having one of the country’s most rigorous recipe-testing methodologies,” the magazine said in the press release. Construction on a new all-glass, floor-to-ceiling wine ‘cellar’ to house Sunset’s wine collection should also be complete by then.

Sunset library. Photo: Spencer Toy
The library at the new Sunset headquarters in Jack London Square, Oakland. Photo: Spencer Toy

Related:
Sunset is moving to Oakland’s Jack London Square (06.02.15)
Jack London Square to get food marketplace (03. 09. 15)

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Tracey Taylor is co-founder of Berkeleyside and co-founder and editorial director of Cityside, the nonprofit parent to Berkeleyside and The Oaklandside. Before launching Berkeleyside, Tracey wrote for...