SAN FRANCISCO | Mission Bay

[ElDuderino]

Originally Posted by Potrero

I ran on Terry Francois yesterday and the windows are now going up on the Madrone. First floor almost done.

The building will be looking much more complete in a few weeks.

Good news. Bring a camera next time

[Potrero]

Originally Posted by ElDuderino

Good news. Bring a camera next time

Not when I am running . However I just figured out how to add pictures to the website so I will start posting pictures too.

[WildCowboy]

Excellent profile of Marc Benioff in today's Chronicle centering on his philanthropy, which is of course primarily toward UCSF's Mission Bay hospital these days.

Buried in the article is mention that the Salesforce Foundation (the company, not Benioff personally) is considering making its largest gift ever, a $10 million gift to Family House to help build a $30 million facility next to UCSF's Mission Bay hospital where out-of-town families can stay while their children are receiving treatment. Family House is a national network of such facilities, and the Koret Family House currently operates two small buildings near the Parnassus campus (one on Irving and one on 10th Ave).

I don't remember seeing anything about this project anywhere, so I'm not sure where it is supposed to be. Anybody else remember anything on this?

[WildCowboy]

More good news for Mission Bay North...file syncing and sharing firm Dropbox is taking 87,000 sf in the China Basin building on Berry Street along the channel.

They're moving from the Phelan Building on Market and looking to grow from 65 employees to 400 as they're reportedly seeking to raise a $200-300 million round of private financing.

[WildCowboy]

Mission Bay news keeps on rolling today.

Just received word that UCSF will be starting construction on the hospital parking garage this week. They'll be drilling the piles instead of driving them.

Here is a PDF document of a presentation showing site plans and renderings. It'll be along future Owens Street, but that's not going in just yet.

They want the garage done by the middle of next year I think so that they can use it for contractor parking for the hospital buildout when that gets into full swing.

The garage will also eventually be expanded to the south when UCSF builds the second phase of the hospital west of Fourth.

[peanut gallery]

Excellent updates all the way around.

Potrero - look forward to your photos. In the meantime, how does the glass that's gone on so far look? Anything look much different from the renderings?

[WildCowboy]

And now a not-so-excellent update:

Merck is pulling out of 1700 Owens, shutting down the unit it acquired when it bought Sirna Therapeutics. Sirna's work will be distributed throughout Merck's research, but the SF unit of 50 jobs is going away. Not a huge amount of people or space, but certainly a major drug maker that was a feather in Mission Bay's cap.

http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco...tting-50-jobs/

[timbad]

Originally Posted by peanut gallery

... how does the glass that's gone on so far look? Anything look much different from the renderings?

I'll jump in here with an incomplete answer... here is a shot from the distance of 4th St, taken over the weekend. it might still be difficult to compare the present state with renderings, since I think all the windows are still covered in blue. (I haven't posted in a while partly because, although work has been steady, there didn't seem to be too much visible difference anywhere since the last time I put pics up, but I'll try to get close-ups soon)



over in the northwest, visible progress has slowed considerably since a spurt in June and early July. here is the inbound road, where landforms have been molded and it seems landscaping is waiting to be put in:



and here is what the approach to the roundabout looks like coming up Owens from the south:



test piles continue to go in across all of block 2.

changing subject, I also vote to have nearby projects such as Daggett Place, Potrero Launch, Pier 70, Seawall Lot 337, kept in this thread for now. Pier 70 might deserve its own thread when it really gets going, and Showplace Square *might* need its own when there are more things going on there, but I like Mission Bay being the gravity and the glue connecting it all.

[peanut gallery]

Thanks timbad! Can't wait to see the glass after the protective covering is removed.

[WildCowboy]

Thanks for the shots, timbad...looking good, and really helps for those of us not in the area but still following the progress.


I just grabbed a couple of shots from the UCSF webcam showing the current state of things on the hospital.

First, in line with what I noted earlier this week, they have indeed begun drilling piles for the hospital parking garage near 16th and future Owens:



Over at the hospital itself, they seem to have pretty much wrapped up work on the southern portion of the main steel structure and have now switched over the northern side to begin working their way back toward the crane.

Here's the southern portion:



And here's the northern portion:



In both shots you can see that they've really cleared away and done grading on where future Fourth Street will be. UCSF is still working on getting approvals to have it closed to through traffic and just have cul-de-sacs coming in from the north and south to service the hospitals. They've presented to the community and need to go all the way up to the supes to get the public right-of-way turned over to UCSF.

UCSF wants to develop seating areas and open space there, with pedestrian and bike access running through it. It seems key with the hospital being on one side of Fourth and the parking lot/garage on the other side to cut that off to through traffic for safety's sake. From what I know of the history of the planning on it, the Dogpatch neighbors are behind it, as it will keep traffic shunted to Third and Owens rather than flowing from Fourth directly into their neighborhood. So hopefully it will go through smoothly.

[timbad]

thanks WC for the med center shots! even tho I walk by there fairly frequently, I should check out the webcam more often - the camera's perspective gives a better idea what's going on behind the fences.

this is what it looks like from street level, looking south down Third:



and here a similar above-the-ground shot from the Third St garage roof:



for me, the biggest surprise seeing the bulk start to take form is how far west, toward the freeway, the building extends. not sure why, but in my mind's eye before construction, it hugged the Third St edge much more closely.

[timbad]

and of course, that other crane you see in the distance in that last photo is the Potrero Launch project, which takes up most of the block bounded by 19th, 20th, Third and Illinois. here is how it is doing, looking south on Third:



and north:



and here is the 'back', on Illinois, across the street from the Pier 70 project (out of the pic):

[timbad]

again, in the distance of the second photo above, you can barely glimpse the cranes over Madrone. I had promised some closer-up shots.

first, some 'context', taken from the Commons to the southeast:



here a close-up of the southeast corner, the base of one of the tower sections:



here looking from the southwest:



and here a close-up of the contrast of a tower section with the central part of the south façade:



and here is the Third St side. it seems that for now at least, most of the glass has gone in around the southern half of the building:



here is the northwestern corner and north side:



and the east side, looking onto the little passage between Madrone and Radiance:

[timbad]

first, an overview of the area that might help make more sense of what is shown in the following pics: this post

they have started placing the soil in the median between the in- and outbound roads leading between the roundabout and the RR crossing at Seventh. my nose told me there was a hefty dose of manure in there. looking east down the inbound road:



and looking south from under the freeway:



in the roundabout itself, they have cast a concrete wall of some sort, with more framing in progress. looking from the northwest:



looking at the roundabout from the southeast:



and here looking just to the right of the previous image, you get a glimpse of the sidewalk that curves along what will be the west edge of block 12. the road in the foreground would be the one coming from the future Commons:



here is looking from Owens coming up from the south, where they have also started laying down soil in the median:



here it looks like they are getting ready to pour the sidewalk on the left (west) side of the Owens approach (in the future there will be a playing field on the left):



and the sidewalk on the east. this block on the right is the site slated for a public school:

[timbad]

elsewhere, not sure if you can see in the distance, but they were working on the next section of Nelson Rising Lane behind the neurosciences building. they had been digging significantly back there for quite some time, as well as in the already-finished section behind the CVR (which you can also see is somewhat ongoing). looking west across Third from the roof of the South St garage:



(not in the pic, but maybe related, they are still excavating deep on the Koret Quad side of Rock Hall; this work seems interminable to me.)

and, also hard to see the equipment, but they were tucking into the massive mound of dirt that has sat for over a year northwest of the neurosciences building:



and, here a shot northwest up the former Fourth St, showing the pile driving that has been completed on block 2 (and the Fourth St Bridge in the distance):

[timbad]

Originally Posted by Potrero

Construction should be starting any time now. See Port document

I did notice for the first time some sort of indication of activity in this area. besides the excavator, for some reason there was a heavy plastic sheet spread across the ground along the bayfront (with bright yellow weights). as seen from the roof of the Third St garage:



here is a closer (but poor) view looking north:

[ElDuderino]

Wow. Great update. It looks like the Madrone only has 2 more regular residential floors and the penthouse floor to go until it is topped out. That seemed fast.

[1977]

Thanks timbad! Amazing update.

It's really great to see some movement at that waterfront park. What a pleasure it'll be to finally enjoy this section of the waterfront. It's amazing how many decades it's been underused and neglected.

[WildCowboy]

Great shots as always, timbad...thanks!

[timbad]

Socketsite had some Mission Bay stuff posted today...

here it gives the run-down on the timeline on especially the blocks at the north end of Fourth (nothing new, but a nice reminder as we get closer to things getting rolling):



"Blocks 5 and 11 down in Mission Bay have just changed hands for a combined $41.4 million according to the San Francisco Business Times. Entitled for 198 and 170 units respectively, the acquiring BRE Properties plans to start construction of rental units on the two blocks by the end of the year.

In related neighborhood block news, United Dominion Trust is planning to break ground on 315 rental units and 9,000 square feet of retail on Block 2 in the third quarter; Mercy Housing will likely break ground on 134 affordable units on Block 13 East by the end of the year (with Bosa following with 285 condos on Block 13 West); and Urban Housing Group is expecting to break ground on 147 rental units on Block 3 in 2012. ..."