SAN FRANCISCO | Projects: Under Construction, Approved, and Proposed

[viewguysf]

Originally Posted by fimiak

These pics are amazing. The last picture shows just how intrusive the bay bridge off-ramp is in downtown. Not only is there a lot of under-used real estate, but removing the ramp would free up traffic in these streets during rush hour (which can be gruesome).

They just rebuilt that ramp and it serves well to get traffic off the freeway and onto Fremont. How else would you have cars exit the bridge? Short ramps would back up.

[Jerry of San Fran]

It looks like the next big thing in my neighborhood is happening - I see a piece of heavy equipment onsite now. Below is a picture from my apartment (Essex Fox Plaza, 27th Floor) and 2 drawings of the "proposed" building at the Heller Manus web page, http://hellermanus.com/1415 mission street.html



1415 Mission - 10-05-2013 by Apollo's Light, on Flickr

[biggerhigherfaster]

Good to see the 1415 mission project. While Market St. is developing, Mission still looks and feels run down from 5th St. on down

[viewguysf]

Originally Posted by biggerhigherfaster

Good to see the 1415 mission project. While Market St. is developing, Mission still looks and feels run down from 5th St. on down

You mean 5th on up!

[easy as pie]

of course, heller manus delivers another piece of shit design. nice work, guys! anyway, good scale and height, hopefully with grade-level commercial.

[viewguysf]

Originally Posted by easy as pie

of course, heller manus delivers another piece of shit design. nice work, guys! anyway, good scale and height, hopefully with grade-level commercial.

Yeah, no kidding--it's totally mediocre at best, awful at worst. It's hard to believe they designed the fab 181 Fremont tower.

[coyotetrickster]

Originally Posted by viewguysf

Yeah, no kidding--it's totally mediocre at best, awful at worst. It's hard to believe they designed the fab 181 Fremont tower.

The developer plays a fundamental role in what the architect can design. They may be given material cost specs that will dictate a particular visual outcome. Jay Paul clearly believes he can bring in big dollar rents for 181 and, push comes to shove, is willing to pay for top notch materials. If you notice, all the tweaks on the original heller mcmanus (sp?) designs were for the exteriors, the massings and layouts all stayed the same. Just pointing out the real world constraints that dictate design.

[biggerhigherfaster]

Originally Posted by easy as pie

of course, heller manus delivers another piece of shit design. nice work, guys! anyway, good scale and height, hopefully with grade-level commercial.

That general area, Mission and 10th and the surrounding blocks, are so run down that just about anything is a major improvement; I think this building is fine; we just need to get thousands of people into the area

[1977]

Sorry, if this is a repost, but here is the SFMOMA expansion construction cam:

http://www.sfmoma.org/our_expansion/expansion_building/constructioncam

[cv94117]

Originally Posted by coyotetrickster

The developer plays a fundamental role in what the architect can design. They may be given material cost specs that will dictate a particular visual outcome. Jay Paul clearly believes he can bring in big dollar rents for 181 and, push comes to shove, is willing to pay for top notch materials. If you notice, all the tweaks on the original heller mcmanus (sp?) designs were for the exteriors, the massings and layouts all stayed the same. Just pointing out the real world constraints that dictate design.

Not true. A talented architect can do great things with inexpensive materials. Look at the range of affordable housing developments in the city (some by David Baker, Leddy Maytum Stacy, etc., are leagues beyond others by less talented architects and they are all with bare-bones budgets that affordable housing requires). And it's not true that only the exteriors were changed on Heller Manus' projects. Look at the Infinity and the new ones going up next door (Lumina?). They were both boring square towers as conceived by H/M. The massing is all that remains (although even that has been tweaked slightly in the second project), but Arquitectonica completely revamped the designs - much more than facade treatment. What they did with those towers after inheriting them from Heller Manus was nothing short of major surgery.

[cv94117]

Originally Posted by biggerhigherfaster

Good to see the 1415 mission project. While Market St. is developing, Mission still looks and feels run down from 5th St. on down

What about the one across the street form 1415 Mission (1400 maybe?) - the affordable development about the same size as 1415 that's going on the lot where Nema's construction trailers were? Anyone know when that's expected to break ground? I thought they were just waiting for the construction trailers to go away.

And while I'm in the vicinity, what's with the little black building built along with Nema at the end of the alley between Nema and 1400 Mission - backed up against the Square building. I thought it was just a temporary building for generators or something, but it's beginning to look more and more permanent. Anyone have an idea? Even at the end of an alley, someone at planning wasn't doing their job if they approved allowing that thing to remain.

[fimiak]

Nema's construction trailers have moved out of that spot. It looks ready as it will ever be to me.

Here's some pics from NeMa 24th floor deck today.

[Jerry of San Fran]

fimiak - great pictures & better view than I had expected. Look forward to more reports.

[timbad]

Originally Posted by cv94117

What about the one across the street form 1415 Mission (1400 maybe?) - the affordable development about the same size as 1415 that's going on the lot where Nema's construction trailers were? Anyone know when that's expected to break ground? I thought they were just waiting for the construction trailers to go away....

in this Planning doc, it says

Of the 190 total units, 167 of the units serve as the off-site below-market rate units for the 201
Folsom Street project. Pursuant to Ordinance 20-04, all of the units designated as the off-site units
for 201 Folsom Street must be completed within 5 years of the start of construction of the 201
Folsom Street project

...that's not a huge help on the start date, but it does mean the clock is ticking

[viewguysf]

Thanks for the cool photos fimiak!

The taller north NEMA tower looked phenomenal tonight from in front of the Veteran's Building and Opera House on the west side of Van Ness! That's definitely its best angle. Sunday's stunning golden sunset affected the tower beautifully, with very impressive highlights and coloration. I'm sorry I didn't have a decent camera with me or the time to snap a phone shot as I was running to get to Davies on time.

[simms3_redux]

The latest:

One Rincon Hill - looks like they've reached the point of the structure that features smaller floorplates.






535 Mission

They have added 4 floors since the last update - now up to floor 11:



Note girl in green sweater below for size reference:

[1977]

Transbay Terminal 360 Pano:
http://www.steelbluellc.com/Pano/TransbayTerminal/

Also, an aerial view of current and upcoming project near the terminal:

Source and larger version: http://www.steelbluellc.com/web/transbay-transit-center-2/

[minesweeper]

Demolition has already begun, and now we have an update on what's being built first at 55 Laguna:

Wood Partners has started demolition of the non-historic structures on the 5.8-acre development at 55 Laguna St., a $150 million project that will total 330 market-rate rental apartments. The site will eventually include a 110-unit affordable senior development by Mercy Housing and OpenHouse, but that project is not fully financed and is probably about a year away from construction.

[...]

Wood Partners will build the entire market-rate project at once, rather than phasing it. He said the decision not to spread out the risk and build in phases was driven by both by belief in the strength of the market as well as design considerations. “If you look at amenities like Waller Park and the Woods Hall Annex, they are requirements of a single project, not two separate projects,” he said.

The developer plans to start leasing units in 2015. The development will have a gym, club room and bike shop.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2013/10/a-decade-later-150m-development.html?page=all

[biggerhigherfaster]

Originally Posted by minesweeper

Demolition has already begun, and now we have an update on what's being built first at 55 Laguna:



http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2013/10/a-decade-later-150m-development.html?page=all

I like the non-phased (or single-phase) approach. Oftentimes, you need all "phases" completed in order to make the project a success and a place that people want to live. So many projects start with one phase. When that one phase is done, the surrounding parcels for future phases are empty land...which causes that first phase to be unsuccessful due to lack of amenities and density that would only exist if the other phases were completed...and then the future phases eventually go uncompleted.

[IMBY]

Originally Posted by biggerhigherfaster

Good to see the 1415 mission project. While Market St. is developing, Mission still looks and feels run down from 5th St. on down

Come on now! Let's not go overboard and Bloomberg-ize San Francisco. Try to imagine what San Francisco would be like today with 3 mayoral terms of the likes of Bloomberg!!! Angel Island would have become the Riker's Island to stash all the homeless? NYC has become nothing more than an antiseptic San Diego of the East Coast! Good grief! They even sterilized Harlem!

I was just up in SF last week, staying in a more colorful, interesting part of SF, Larkin/Geary at the Motel 6. No need for a TV in my room, I was entertained enough watching the foot traffic from the 3rd floor balcony overlooking Larkin!

Leaving SF, I decided to stop at the 16th/Mission Bart stop, just to take a peek at that slice of SF! OMG! It was like walking into Tijuana! Loved it, loved it, loved it! Could hardly drag myself away from that 2-story Thrift Town thrift store, particularly the used book section!

I say, let's leave the seedier areas of SF intact, keep SF a widely diverse city and not take the NYC route!

I pray the new mayor of NYC brings some much-needed seediness back to that city!