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MVRDV completes ‘The Canyon’ tower in San Francisco inspired by California’s geology

2023-06-27T11:17:00-04:00

MVRDV has completed a mixed-use tower in San Francisco inspired by geology. Named ‘The Canyon,’ the 23-story scheme is part of a wider master plan along the city’s waterfront to create a sustainable community named Mission Rock.

Image credit: Jason O'Rear

The Canyon is one of four buildings to be delivered as part of the first phase of the Mission Rock neighborhood, which also includes designs by Studio Gang, Henning Larsen, and WorkAC. Occupying the northwest corner of the neighborhood, The Canyon is grounded by a five-story plinth topped by a 240-foot-tall tower.

A ground floor of small-scale shops and restaurants is topped by two floors of offices, while the tower contains 283 apartments. Over a third of the apartments are rented at below market rate, with residents selected via a lottery process, providing 102 homes for middle-income families in response to the city’s housing crisis.

Image credit: Jason O'Rear

The development features a ruggedly textured red-brown facade, while a...

Construction begins on Studio Gang's Parcel F tower, the final piece of San Francisco's Mission Rock development

2022-06-15T16:03:00-04:00

Construction of Studio Gang’s planned Parcel F contribution to the Mission Rock development is officially underway in San Francisco, filling in the final puzzle piece of a 28-acre mixed-use scheme led by Tishman Speyer and the local Major League Baseball affiliate San Francisco Giants.

The $2.5 billion plan’s latest building contributes 97 new below-market apartments to the project’s 1,200 unit total. At 23 stories, it is the same height as Mission Rock’s other MVRDV-designed residential tower, The Canyon. It will be the last of four completed structures at the site behind WORKac’s new 8-story biotech office, the 13-story Visa global Headquarters from Henning Larsen.

Image render © Studio Gang

It comes with a series of outdoor public terraces and other mesa-like open spaces cut into its base and stepped facade. The Studio included a “Sky Garden” feature on the roof of the 315,000-square-foot structure as the bookend to a network of local plant varieties meant to support biodiversity...

MVRDV's mixed-use The Canyon is ready to play ball in San Francisco

2022-04-20T16:28:00-04:00

The pivotal first residential development that will eventually form the cornerstone of San Francisco’s new Mission Rock neighborhood topped out last week, representing a milestone for the city and designers MVRDV.

Previously: Construction begins for MVRDV's latest 'rocky' mixed-use tower in San Francisco. Street view. Visualization © Pixelflakes/Courtesy of MVRDV

Featuring a suite of ground-floor retail spaces and 50,000 square feet of offices in addition to its 283 residential units (of which 102 are considered below market rate), The Canyon is the first of four buildings comprising the initial phase of a comprehensive masterplan developed by the San Francisco Giants baseball team and Tishman Speyer that will deliver a new 28-acre mixed-use neighborhood to the area south of Oracle Park.

The culmination of a 14-month construction period that began in late February of last year, the new development is defined by a topographically-inspired design d...

Construction begins for MVRDV's latest 'rocky' mixed-use tower in San Francisco

2021-02-24T14:19:00-05:00

Another project from the Rotterdam-based practice begins construction in San Francisco. MVRDV's latest mixed-use building named Building A is part of the city's new Mission Rock masterplan. The team designed a 23-story tower with undulating balconies that extend to the top of the building's western facade suggests a "rocky" exterior.

According to the firm, their tower's block-like topography was inspired by California landscapes to form a low to high rise structure, creating a canyon-like space opening into the harbor. The structure's roof terraces "complement internal amenities for the inhabitants, while the canyon is shared with people working in offices on the lower floors," shares MVRDV. "Its internal, canyon-like street is an essential part of a sequence of public spaces, extending the landscape from China Basin Park through the building itself and into the heart of the Mission Rock masterplan, connecting the different plots."