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

[Gordo]

Originally Posted by CyberEric

Ugh, that looks like a Tetris building. Any shots of the 22 story tower that would be built? You say the old building would be leveled and replaced with two others, but I thought I read that it was only a portion of the old building that would be leveled?

I agree with Nopa, sadly Nimby laws keep that from happening. I am not sure this is really an improvement if it is as ugly as this rendering makes it. In ten years the area will be uglier than ever.

The 22 story tower is in that rendering - the 22 story tower is simply phase two of a three phase project. It's not a new tower design, but something that's been planned for a looooong time.

When completed, all of the old buildings will be gone, replaced by what you see in the rendering above. It's just being done in multiple phases over a decade.

[viewguysf]

Originally Posted by NOPA

Wow lots of news! Can't wait to see some of this to breakground. However, I really think SF needs to get some more towers over the 500' level. The skyline is kind of flat-lined. Is that too much to ask?

Over 500' won't cut it since much of the City is flat-lined at the 600' or above level. We need 800'-plus buildings to begin to make a real difference.

[viewguysf]

Originally Posted by CyberEric

Ugh, that looks like a Tetris building. Any shots of the 22 story tower that would be built? You say the old building would be leveled and replaced with two others, but I thought I read that it was only a portion of the old building that would be leveled?

I agree with Nopa, sadly Nimby laws keep that from happening. I am not sure this is really an improvement if it is as ugly as this rendering makes it. In ten years the area will be uglier than ever.

This is actually a great project--look at the thread dedicated to it.

[peanut gallery]

Yeah, I've always liked Trinity. Looking forward to phase two getting started.

A skyline view from above Sausalito:


Plant got in the way of the ship but I couldn't stay there any longer to get it right.

[CyberEric]

Originally Posted by viewguysf

This is actually a great project--look at the thread dedicated to it.

I would like to, where is it? I searched for Trinity and found no threads about it.

[Gordo]

^Here you go: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=129548

[CyberEric]

Originally Posted by Gordo

^Here you go: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=129548

Thanks! I guess it's just me, but that building is pretty ugly. It has a cheap, good enough for now look to it.
I do appreciate the intent though. That area needs help so I hope it's for the best.

[viewguysf]

Originally Posted by CyberEric

Thanks! I guess it's just me, but that building is pretty ugly. It has a cheap, good enough for now look to it.
I do appreciate the intent though. That area needs help so I hope it's for the best.

Go look at the first tower that was built in the southeast corner of the project site on Mission Street and you'll see it's not cheap.

[1977]

More great news from Mid-Market:

American Conservatory Theater eyes Mid-Market site

The American Conservatory Theater is taking a serious look at expanding into San Francisco's Mid-Market district, something many say could be the beginning of a transformation in the area.

The nationally renowned theater company wants to turn a run-down triangular lot at the corner of Turk and Market Streets into a $100 million, multistory arts complex filled with a 300-seat theater, housing for visiting actors, and space for a cabaret, classrooms and retail.

While the plan is still in its tenuous early stages, many believe it could bring new vibrancy to an area known decades ago as a lively theater district but now seen as an economic wasteland.

"If it happens, it could be a critical-mass opportunity for this block," said Elvin Padilla, head of the Tenderloin Economic Development Project and a key supporter of the plan. But all agree it would be years before the project breaks ground.

The new arts complex would not replace ACT's historic home near Union Square, but would allow the company to combine rehearsal rooms, costume shops and administrative offices that are currently spread throughout the city under one roof, said Ellen Richard, the theater's executive director.

ACT officials hope they can share space in the building, which could be as a large as 200,000 square feet, with other arts organizations also hunting for office and rehearsal space, Richard said.

"If we could consolidate all of this into one space, it would be perfect," she said.

Search for partners

The group will work with an outside consultant for the next six months to determine if it can find partners and raise $100 million to buy and demolish the current buildings and design and construct the new building, she said.

Under the current plan, ACT would buy three lots on the eastern side of the triangular block, leaving only the Warfield Theater and the Crazy Horse strip club standing.

The owners of the two-story retail and office buildings ACT is seeking seem very interested in selling their properties, Padilla said.

Revive the area

The new building would bring hundreds of workers, residents and theatergoers, who could breathe new life into the block, especially during the evening hours when the sidewalk is often ceded to the homeless.

"It would have a great impact on the neighborhood, because there would actually be activity there," Richard said.

A 300-seat theater would also allow ACT and other theater groups to produce less-mainstream shows that would never fill the company's current home, the 1,000-seat Geary Theater.

"We would like to have a smaller theater ... a smaller venue that would allow us to produce riskier work and more intimate work," Richard said.

City officials excited

City officials say they are especially excited by the project because it is across the street from the site of the 265,000-square-foot CityPlace mall, scheduled to break ground this spring.

Having two major destinations at the foot of the Mid-Market district would generate traffic and interest that could spread up the street, they say.

"The city is committed to doing whatever we can to make the project a reality - this is an amazing opportunity to bring the arts district to a whole new level," said Amy Cohen of the Mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development.

The idea of turning the Mid-Market area into an arts district has appealed to planners for years, because arts were key to turning around blighted neighborhoods in other parts of the country, including Times Square and SoHo in New York City.

Need to draw people

But arts aren't always the best, or only, way to improve a neighborhood, said Alex Garvin, a professor at Yale who studies the evolution of cities.

While the construction of Lincoln Center radically changed the West Side of New York City, a similar center in Los Angeles has had no impact on the surrounding neighborhood, he said.

The key for Mid-Market, Garvin said, is finding a way to get people to spend time near the theater before or after a show.

"There are many things that can turn a neighborhood around," he said. "What turns the place into something is the interest of the people."

"It is how you do it," he added later. "Not just what you do."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/23/MNH71HCLO1.DTL#ixzz1Bybr8Wd3

Source:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/art...s/2011/01/21/mn-act24_PH1_0502858887.jpg

[CyberEric]

That looks like it could be a fantastic project!

And is Mid Market the new nice way to say the Tenderloin?

[Jerry of San Fran]

[QUOTE=1977;5137576]More great news from Mid-Market:
CyberEric

[I think "Mid-Market" is a term for wishful thinking that the Tenderloin will go away. Market Street can & will be developed but it will be a facade that hides the Tenderloin & it's social problems.

[NOPA]

When will San Francisco stop ignoring the giant problem called the TL?

[CyberEric]

Originally Posted by NOPA

When will San Francisco stop ignoring the giant problem called the TL?

If we all call it Mid-Market it will just go away!

I think this development could be very good for the TL.

[jaypkatl]

I live in the TL and have to say there has been an increase in police recently. They have been regularly clearing areas where a certain element congregate.

[ElDuderino]

SF redevelopment projects may be expedited

Will Kane, Chronicle Staff Writer

San Francisco officials say they are ready to accelerate many local redevelopment projects if it looks like they'll be eliminated by Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed budget cuts.

Dozens of cities and counties in California have rushed to approve redevelopment funds in the weeks after Brown first announced his proposed $5.7 billion cut to redevelopment, but San Francisco's agency has stayed out of the fray.

That could change, though, if it becomes clear the governor's proposal would eliminate funding for Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard or the Treasure Island development, Mayor Ed Lee told The Chronicle.

Lee said his office is "putting together steps" to ensure the projects are quickly approved if he and others can't broker a deal with Brown, as they tried to do in Sacramento on Wednesday.

Mayors from nine major cities and Brown met and agreed to form a working group to explore options besides eliminating redevelopment.

While Brown did not back down from his proposal, he did signal that he is willing to work with the big-city mayors, said Tony Winnicker, the mayor's spokesman.

But city staff will continue planning to expedite the approval of some redevelopment projects - which borrow money against the future value of a property to fund improvement to blighted neighborhoods - because negotiations could fall through and the funds could be cut.

"There's no rush to push things through prematurely," Winnicker said. "As a result of this meeting, he's not pulling the trigger immediately. That said, we realize days are important here."

While much of the development at Hunters Point will continue, agreements to pay for affordable homes with redevelopment funds have not yet been approved, said Fred Blackwell, head of the city's redevelopment agency.

It isn't clear whether developers can afford to build the housing without redevelopment funds, he said.

Under the original plan, the agency would issue money for each of the affordable housing sites once they were ready - something expected to take at least a year, Blackwell said.

But the agency could consider offering redevelopment money now for the affordable housing lots before all the details, including finding a developer, are worked out.

"That's not the way we've traditionally gone about it," he said.

The redevelopment agreement at Treasure Island was expected to be approved in July, but could instead be accelerated and approved before the new budget takes effect, said Rich Hillis with the Office of Economic and Workforce Development.

"It is another important project that doesn't happen without redevelopment," he said.

Brown will release a detailed budget plan in early February that will clarify how many projects in San Francisco would be cut or eliminated, Blackwell said.

"We aren't pressing the panic button until we see the governor's proposal," he said.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/27/BA5S1HEJUK.DTL

[CyberEric]

Thanks^. Wouldn't it be interesting if a bunch of projects all got kicked into action because of the very cuts that threaten them.

[ElDuderino]

Yeah. It seems like that is exactly what is happening all over the state. In other possible development news....

Oracle Racing to preview America's Cup on bay

C.W. Nevius

You've heard the promises about the America's Cup in San Francisco. It will reinvent the waterfront, pour a billion dollars into the economy, and cure world hunger. And sure, it will probably be a real game changer for the city.

But this is San Francisco, a city that never met a project it couldn't smother in red tape. The qualifying races could be here as soon as 2012. The amount of prep work is staggering, from relocating 77 port tenants (and you know some of them are going to fight), meeting state environmental regulations, and (oh yeah) making infrastructure improvements that will run to the tens of millions of dollars.

So it is no surprise that in the next few months Larry Ellison's Oracle Racing is going to throw USA-17, the ginormous trimaran that won the 33rd America's Cup, into the bay. USA-17 is on a freighter right now, headed for the Panama Canal and then San Francisco. When it arrives, around March 1, it will be assembled and then will probably sail through the bay.

It will be like nothing you've ever seen in your life.

Picture the Bay Bridge. Now picture the top of the mast of USA-17 crashing into the span. It's that tall. The carbon fiber mast (think of a 747 wing but bigger) USA-17 used to win the Cup is 223 feet. The vertical clearance for the west side of the Bay Bridge is 220 feet. For the east it is just 191 feet. They will need to use a smaller mast to fit it under the bridge.

Talk about a battleship in a bathtub. Every spin around the bay will be a traffic-stopper.

The idea is to fire up enthusiasm for the event just as the really hard work begins. There must be cooperation and many groups must put aside their personal interests. Cynics would call that unlikely, but I'd ask them to consider the payoff.

In 1995, a team from New Zealand won the Cup in San Diego to earn the right to host the event in Auckland in 2000. Chronicle reader John Bostock was vacationing in Auckland that year.

"I went for a little run down by the waterfront," Bostock recalled, "and it looked strikingly like the piers in San Francisco. They were crumbling, dangerous, and there weren't even buildings there."

For better perspective, Bostock suggested I call a friend of his in New Zealand, Gray Mathias.

"It was such a crap heap," Mathias says. "They used to store logs in the water. There were a couple of fish processing facilities, which was not that pleasant."

And then the sailing teams began to arrive. Each constructed a large "base," where they could store materials and work on their boats. The structures were large enough to house several boats with their masts down. Investors surrounded the bases with apartments, a hotel, and restaurants and bars. That's when Bostock returned for a visit.

"The transformation was jaw-dropping," Bostock said. "You'd never know it was the same place."

"I have lived in Auckland since I was in high school," said Mathias, who is 63. "And I have been involved in sailing my whole life. But I totally underestimated the benefits of the America's Cup."

The harbor was filled with luxurious private boats ranging from 100 to 150 feet.

"We must have had 30 to 40 big superyachts," Mathias said. "Most of the owners don't know a bloody thing about sailing, but they like to be seen."

A berthing area for the superyachts included maintenance facilities, which have continued to operate. Auckland is now port of call for high-rolling yachters.

Like the San Francisco waterfront, Auckland's harbor was ripe for improvement. But it needed a jump-start.

"The key is you need a reason for that level of development," Mathias said. "And you couldn't come up with a better one, even the Olympic Games."

That's bold talk. But keep them in mind when you see USA-17 squeaking under the Bay Bridge. This is an event that thinks big.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/27/BAIN1HEJL3.DTL&type=newsbayarea

[hruski]

Originally Posted by ElDuderino

Yeah. It seems like that is exactly what is happening all over the state. In other possible development news....



http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/27/BAIN1HEJL3.DTL&type=newsbayarea

i lived in auckland for awhile, and the viaduct looks beautiful. there's a ton of great restaurants, nightlife, and residential space right by it, and it's a really fun area to go out in (both for tourists and locals).

i hope san francisco can develop something similar. we'll see.

[Reminiscence]

Not sure if anyone has posted anything on this, but Socketsite.com has a sneek peek of sorts regarding 706 Mission and its associated Mexican Museum plans. Looks like 47 stories at 550', a decent proposal for this space. I for one can't wait to see official renderings

Here's the background, but the update is on the cover page:

http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2008/..._restore_and_develop_adjacent_to_70.html

[1977]

Thanks Reminiscence. I am really excited about this project and am looking forward to some more detailed renderings as well. For now, here are the preliminary renderings from Socketsite:





And a before shot of the Aronson Building:



And after:



Finally, an aerial view of the site:


Source: www.socketsite.com