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

[BTinSF]

Originally Posted by Reminiscence

Thats a gorgeous rendering, one that deserves more than one view. This may seem like a pedestrian-like question, but in order to maximize height, why dont they make this into a mixed-use building with residential on top of office?

I'm guessing they want nothing to do with residential right now and their lenders probably don't either. I'm just thrilled they are apparently willing to go ahead building office "on spec" if necessary.

[BTinSF]

Originally Posted by Reminiscence

Thats a gorgeous rendering

Yes, it is. But a bit disingenuous. It makes the building look wedge-shaped which it won't be--it'll be a standard rectangle and with all the public space inside (so no open plaza next door), a little "chunky" appearing I fear.

[JAC6]

That rendering of 350 Mission is quite dramatic. Seems like an interesting angle at the top of the building at the corner of Mission and Fremont. Looks like an impressive glass atrium as well. Hard to get much on what it will look like in context though. But intriguing, to be sure.

[JAC6]

Originally Posted by BTinSF

Yes, it is. But a bit disingenuous. It makes the building look wedge-shaped which it won't be--it'll be a standard rectangle and with all the public space inside (so no open plaza next door), a little "chunky" appearing I fear.

Then the rendering isn't much good, as that angle seems like the key feature above the first few floors. Is that narrow plaza next to 55 Fremont that leads to the Blue Cross of California going to be gone?

[Reminiscence]

Originally Posted by BTinSF

Yes, it is. But a bit disingenuous. It makes the building look wedge-shaped which it won't be--it'll be a standard rectangle and with all the public space inside (so no open plaza next door), a little "chunky" appearing I fear.

I suppose its all about making a good first impression. When I first saw it, its roof looked similar to the roof of Millenium, but it seems like its just the angle of exposure. The lobby looks impressive, but I agree that the building will look "chunky", which is why I think this definitly deserves more height to it (at least for being in the location where it is).

[peanut gallery]

Originally Posted by JAC6

Is that narrow plaza next to 55 Fremont that leads to the Blue Cross of California going to be gone?

According to the description from the SF Business Times that BT posted, the plaza will remain as they are designing the public space for 350 Mission to take advantage of it:

Originally Posted by BTinSF

The design lifts the first floor of office 50 feet above grade, creating a spacious public lobby with 90 linear feet of space that will open up to the street, when weather permits, with folding glass panels. A glass and wood "grand staircase" will connect the ground floor with an additional mezzanine level facing the street, where an upscale restaurant and bar will open onto the existing plaza at 45 Fremont St.

Originally Posted by BTinSF

it'll be a standard rectangle and with all the public space inside (so no open plaza next door), a little "chunky" appearing I fear.

From the description you posted above, I think the public space will open to the narrow plaza next door. They describe movable glass panels to open it up on nice days. It sounds similar to 101 Second, which I think works very well.

[peanut gallery]

Update on the new SPUR Building:




Lots of concrete block going in.

[peanut gallery]

Finally, something new on 680 Folsom. That's the building at Folsom and Third that is getting a new skin:


At the Folsom entrance they have mounted some glass for testing purposes:






Can't wait to see it go on the building.

[Reminiscence]

That is some nice skin indeed. If the silver fins seen there are a part of it, it should resemble 555 Mission somewhat. 555 turned out very nice in my opinion, so this should not dissapoint

[peanut gallery]

They are definitely part of the facade, not bracing to hold this piece in place. Fins and green glass -- seems to be a theme lately.

[northbay]

wow, a vast improvement

[BTinSF]

Friday, July 18, 2008
Millennium Partners, JMA Venturs tapped for tower
Mexican Museum gets boost
San Francisco Business Times - by J.K. Dineen

The last undeveloped parcel in the Yerba Buena district could become home to a 220-unit condominium tower in addition to the Mexican Museum and possibly the new International Museum of Women, under an exclusive negotiating agreement reached July 15 between the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and the developers.

Under the proposed scheme, the development team -- a joint venture between Millennium Partners and JMA Ventures -- would build the core and shell of a 35,000- to 40,000-square-foot Mexican Museum at no cost to the museum. The museum would be housed on the lower floors of the condo tower, which will be built on a 25,000-square-foot site on the north side of Mission Street between Third and Fourth streets. The site includes a 9,000-square-foot site the Redevelopment Agency owns and a 16,000-square-foot parcel Millennium and JMA bought in 2006.

The museum and condo tower would be connected to the historic Mercantile Building at 706 Mission St., the 1903 structure with baroque ornamental details that JMA and Millennium Partners own. The height of the residential tower, which is being designed by Mexican architect Enrique Norton and Glenn Rescalvo of Handel Architects, has not been determined; however, a portion of the residential tower will be built over the existing Mercantile Building, according to Amy Neches, project director for the Redevelopment Agency.

Neches compared the integration of the historic and new tower with the nearby St. Regis hotel and residences, which is connected on the southwest corner to the 1907 Williams Building.

"This will complete Jesse Square," said Neches. "You have St. Patrick's, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, and now the Mexican Museum completing this public square. It's a sacred public place."

If approved, the agreement would not be cheap for JMA, which recently opened Fairmont Heritage Place at Ghirardelli Square, and Millennium Partners, which is building a the Millennium Tower at 333 Mission St. In addition to building the Mexican Museum, the developers have agreed to establish a $5 million endowment to help the cultural institution establish itself. Also, Millennium and JMA have agreed to pay $22 million into an affordable housing fund in lieu of meeting the city's affordable housing requirements. The payment would be equivalent to making 28 percent of the units below market rate.

While the use of the Mercantile building is still being decided, the ground floor will continue to be retail and will be the entrance to the residential tower. The agency and the developer are also talking to the International Museum of Women about moving that organization to the lower floors of 706 Mission. The upper portion of the 100,000-square-foot building could remain office or become housing. Tenants in the building include Yelp, which recently expanded into 32,000 square feet.

Neches said the non-historic gold brick exterior on 706 Mission would be removed to restore the original exterior.

"It's going to be a beautiful building, the exterior has not been preserved over the years," said Neches.

Neches stressed that the exclusive negotiating agreement would be the start of a long public process of traffic studies, shadow studies and public debate.

"We think Millennium and JMA are great partners," said Neches. "They have a great understanding of downtown development and working with the public on complicated projects."


jkdineen@bizjournals.com / (415) 288-4971

Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranci...ml?t=printable

[BTinSF]

As usual, the editors of Socketsite have been reading the BizTimes and posted this photo of the Mexican Museum et. al. site (it's a bit old, though, because the Contemporary Jewish Museum and Jesse Square are now finished):


Source: http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2...o_70.html#more

[SFView]

Originally Posted by peanut gallery

Finally, something new on 680 Folsom...



Can't wait to see it go on the building.

This is an excellent example that typifies the current trend towards the glass curtain wall style in San Francisco, after decades of deliberate avoidance. Only now, the glass is often accompanied by some sort of finning, along with very thin aluminum mullions. Sometimes varied textures in glass are used, as in 555 Mission and 350 Mission, adding interest to the designs. If I am not mistaken, the glass on 350 Mission looks as if alternating panels are tilted at slightly different angles. This could create rather interesting reflective patterns on itself, as well as the surroundings - very nice if true!

[peanut gallery]

Hopefully when they say they will build out over the Mercantile building, they just mean the plain, solid brick section at the back (away from Third, far left in the photo below). I'd hate to see too much encroachment on the rest of the building. Look at the Ritz-Carlton addition to the old Chronicle. I wouldn't want this to cover even that much of the older building.

I'm really curious about the gold brick comments. Is he referring to that plain brick portion in the back and the ground level facade? Because I'm having a hard time seeing them strip all the brickwork from the other parts of this building. It doesn't look like this could be covering an older facade to me:

[BTinSF]

I think the brick to be removed is on the modern addition and the first floor (which is also modern). If they plan to put 220 condos in a tower that occupies just the footprint of the Mexican Museum site, they are going to have to go way tall--I'd say 40 stories like the surrounding buildings at least.

[peanut gallery]

That's what I'm hoping for, on both counts.

[c1tyguy]

I searched this thread for renderings of the new SPUR building but only found construction photos. Can anyone provide a link?

[peanut gallery]

Here's a rendering I've seen on SPUR's and the architect's websites. I pulled this from CurbedSF because it was only available in Flash on the other two sites:


You can also keep up to date on the project at SPUR's website.

[peanut gallery]

Anyone know what is going in on Army near Valencia or Mission (I didn't note exactly where)? I'm thinking it will be housing, but curious if anyone has info on that project.