Midjourney plans a San Francisco spa with water-based ultrasound scanning
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Basalt Architects is designing the Union Square bathhouse. Midjourney now targets early 2028 and defines its launch scanner as a body-composition tool.
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Midjourney Medical plans to open a San Francisco bathhouse with saunas, hot tubs, cold plunges and private rooms for whole-body ultrasound scanning. The company’s current target is early 2028, revising the 2027 timetable in the original architectural announcement. The site is near Union Square, on Grant Avenue, with Iceland’s Basalt Architects leading the design.
The project brings a technology company into the same physical bathing market that has attracted urban bathhouse operators. Its proposed distinguishing feature is a scanner that works while a visitor stands in warm water. The spa itself will also welcome people who simply want to bathe.
A bathhouse built around water-based imaging
Basalt’s initial announcement described a roughly 25,000-square-foot facility combining pools, steam, cold immersion, fitness and scanning. Renderings show circular treatment spaces behind fluted glass, warm lighting and water-filled interiors. Those images illustrate a design in development; Midjourney now says the layout is changing and withholds final floor area and locker counts.
In the architectural project credits, Hrólfur Karl Cela is project architect, Rapt Studio is architect of record, and TLEE Spas + Wellness is the spa consultant. Myrtha Pools and Martin Aquatic are listed for the aquatic work. Basalt’s portfolio includes Icelandic geothermal bathing projects and the Blue Lagoon, giving the team experience with the arrival, changing and water sequences that this project requires.
Basalt partners Perla Dís Kristinsdóttir and Cela discussed the San Francisco commission with Lisa Starr on StarrCast at the International Sauna Congress. Their brief was to make repeated visits pleasant enough that scanning could become part of a bathing routine. Their account of transitions, privacy and access also informs our coverage of Earth Lagoon’s three changing-room approaches.
What the launch scanner will do
The company’s FAQ describes nine private scanner rooms. Its launch product is intended to measure body composition, not diagnose disease, screen for cancer or replace a clinician’s assessment. Accuracy is still being characterized. Visitors wear swimwear, shower first and keep their head above water; the company describes a moving platform and several independent stopping systems.
That scope is narrower than the broad imaging ambitions discussed in the podcast. Midjourney says additional scanning modalities remain under consideration. Pricing, final eligibility rules and the full operating schedule have not been announced. The company is considering around-the-clock access but has not decided whether overnight hours would cover the entire spa or scanning alone.
What is available today
The San Francisco project is still planned, so it has no bookable SaunaShare listing. Midjourney offers a waitlist through its Medical website. The architectural images are renderings, not photographs of an operating facility.
For an existing large thermal spa, The Well near Oslo combines pools, sauna rituals, steam rooms and a hotel with public day admission. Its staffed ritual program illustrates another part of a thermal facility’s operating model: the work of managing heat and guests.
