San Francisco, California
Located in the new master planned neighborhood of Mission Bay, this 15-story residential building is located on King Street and is adjacent to Mission Creek.
The development includes 300 residential units in a mix of flats, town homes, live-work units and some retail spaces. The project was designed to comply with the design guidelines of the master plan, which required that the building have a stepped massing configuration with low-rise, mid-rise and high-rise volumes. The flats are located in the high-rise and mid-rise portions of the building, while the town homes are in the low-rise portion. There is also a row of live-work units that enliven the base of the tower along King Street. The live-work units on King Street and the town home units on Barry Street conceal a two-story above-grade parking podium. The top of the podium is a lushly landscaped urban plaza that serves as the communal open space for the residents. A grand set of urban steps cascades down from the plaza and lead to a small pocket park across Barry Street.
The efficient, but large, rectangular mass of the building is broken down by conceiving of the tower as two L-shaped buildings. They are separated by a recessed grid of white metal panels and floor to ceiling glass. The overall imagery of the facades evokes the functional, yet dramatic, facades of the industrial buildings that once occupied the surrounding area. Designed under the direction of Christopher Coe while Managing Director and Director of Design of Arquitectonica Los Angeles.