Vertical Village

1.A hacker house after it discovers commercial real estate and starts calling the tenants citizens. Founders live, work, pitch, and optimize their biomarkers in one curated stack so nobody has to waste a hallway conversation on a civilian.

I went downstairs for water at 1 a.m. and came back with a co-founder, a peptide protocol, and no water. Vertical village.

01Origin

Vertical village was already an architecture and urban-planning term. Its SF tech sense was adopted by Berlinhouse Society in late 2024 for Frontier Tower at 995 Market Street, a proposed citizen-only community with themed floors for AI, biotech, crypto, robotics, longevity, and the arts. Local media began repeating the label in January 2025, and founders soon used it without quotation marks, which is how marketing becomes vernacular. ([frontiertower.notion.site](https://frontiertower.notion.site/Frontier-Tower-SF-1438b4aa560380ec936fdf602b8f85f0?utm_source=openai))

The project drew from Zuzalu and the network-state movement, plus a 35-person co-living house its founders started in Leipzig in 2013. Residential conversion inside Frontier Tower was initially pending approval; by April 2026, the live-work proposition instead paired the tower with the nearby Superhero Hotel. Mission Dolores Manor is a separate 16-room founder house and a useful parallel, not the origin of the phrase. ([frontiertower.io](https://frontiertower.io/about?utm_source=openai))

02Notable sightings

Emily Mills · @sf_mills · view on X
Today I’m learning about a “16-floor tower in the heart of SF,” that “will be a citizen-only vertical village,” “the first node in a network state spanning multiple cities,” where “pioneers” will shape how “society will live in a post-AI world.” *Coliving pending city approval.

Vitaly Bulatov · @vitl2907
Called Frontier Tower a vertical village for frontier tech and a natural home for a Cyberpunk Lab where roboticists, artists, and developers could collaborate on humanoid robots.

Laurence Ion · @longevion
Offered a $10,000 referral bonus for a Longevity Community Space Lead in Frontier Tower, described as a 16-floor vertical village in the heart of SF.

Jose Rios · @SiliconJose
Described Frontier Tower after speaking there as a 16-floor vertical village full of engineers and researchers across AI, crypto, robotics, and other fields.

Will Phillips · @willsclips_
Promoted an episode filmed inside Frontier Tower, calling it a 16-floor vertical village for founders working across multiple industries.

More sightings on X →

03Spread the ism

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Vertical Village

01Origin

02Notable sightings

03Spread the ism

04See also