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2020-07-16T18:14:00-04:00

A new 443-unit apartment building designed by David Baker Architects (DBA) was recently completed in San Francisco, filling in a growing section of the city's Design District and South of Market neighborhoods.

The dynamic apartment complex, known as 855 Brannan, sits on a 4.3-acre site and includes 15 "at-grade flex lofts," according to the architects.

Previously on Archinect: "David Baker Architects on Growing a Team-Based, Family-Friendly Practice" Photo: View of the 855 Brannan project's steel panel-wrapped, undulating facades.

It's perimeter block formation is marked by generous landscape designs created by CMG Landscape Architecture that include a row of mature palms and a grove of redwood trees situated within one of the apartment courtyards. Crisscrossed by privately owned alleys, 16,000 square feet of commercial spaces, and other linkages, the metal panel wrapped apartments represent the latest multi-family housing addition by the firm to the city. The market-rate developme...

David Baker Architects receives 2020 AIA California Firm of the Year award

2020-05-19T13:02:00-04:00

San Francisco-based practice David Baker Architects has been recognized with the 2020 AIA California Firm Award.

The award is presented to an architecture firm each year, according to the American Institute of Architects, California Council (AIA CA), that has "consistently produced distinguished architecture for a period of at least 10 years." The award, AIA CA adds, recognizes "the firm not only for the quality of its work, but also for its impact-driven design philosophy dedicated to helping solve the housing crisis."

Previously on Archinect: "David Baker Architects on Growing a Team-Based, Family-Friendly Practice." DBA's Harmon Guest House. Photo ©BruceDamonte.

Regarding where he thinks the firm is headed over the next five to ten years, David Baker told Archinect last year: "We are transitioning to our third generation of leadership. Architectural practice continues to evolve, and we will continue to adapt. Our practice has decentralized to three offices in the past few years, ...

Critic John King sizes up new affordable housing projects in San Francisco

2019-08-16T19:10:00-04:00

There’s a visually striking addition to the ever-troubled Tenderloin — a nine-story structure clad in colorful brick that holds 113 apartments for low-income residents, plus a pair of community-oriented retail spaces. Too bad it took 11 years to summon the newcomer into existence.

John King, The San Francisco Chronicle's urban design critic, takes a look at the David Baker Architects-designed 222 Taylor project, the fruits of a long-running effort to build affordable housing in San Francisco.

While lamenting the long and drawn-out design and approval process the 133-unit, 100-percent affordable housing project underwent, King praises DBA's work, overall, saying, "Baker is one of our most dependably creative architects, adept at both ultra-lux infill like Hayes Valley’s 300 Ivy and low-income housing complexes he’s designed for nonprofit developers for two decades. His trademarks are on show here, such as the board-formed concrete or the windows framed by emphatic metal sunshades."