Archinect - News

San Francisco is gearing up for a boom in housing development projects

2021-12-27T13:52:00-05:00

Even as smaller projects are stuck in limbo due to market uncertainties and astronomical construction costs, the city’s colossal multi-phased projects like those at Treasure Island, Mission Rock, Pier 70 and Power Station will steam full speed ahead. Streets are being laid out, sidewalks poured, trees planted, streetlights installed and buildings are sprouting from the ground.

The city is currently in the process of transforming Treasure Island, the artificial holm named after the Robert Louis Stevenson novel and created for the 1939 World’s Fair, into an 8,000-unit residential neighborhood with below-market housing and retail amenities that is anticipated to host a population of around 20,000 by 2032 in spite of concerns that the former U.S. Navy facility is contaminated.

The hope created by the projects is being dampened somewhat by the bureaucratic process behind development schemes, which has stalled several other mixed-use and residential initiatives in more developed areas of the city, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.

“Working people like our nurses, teachers, and even the construction workers who build our homes are suffering because we haven’t built enough housing for decades,” Mayor London Breed told the paper. “Even with the progress on moving large projects forward, we have to make fundamental changes to how we approve and permit hou...

Check out MAD's new LA and SF designs for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

2016-10-27T13:48:00-04:00

After a long and obstructive political process (and some sad looking pics of Rahm Emanuel) George Lucas' Museum of Narrative Art decided to abandon its attempt to build in Chicago and now is looking toward the Golden State: specifically, Treasure Island in San Francisco and Exposition Park in Los Angeles. Ma Yansong of MAD architects has subsequently whipped up some new proposed designs for each locale. First up, Exposition Park:

And Treasure Island:

For more on the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art:

Embattled Lucas Museum may move to S.F.'s Treasure Island

2016-05-19T13:58:00-04:00

A spokeswoman for San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin confirmed that the city and museum representatives are in early discussions about a site on Treasure Island, a destination in San Francisco Bay famous for a naval base. Los Angeles is also trying to stay in the game, with Mayor Eric Garcetti saying that Lucas' project would find a good home in the heart of the movie industry.

The lawsuit averse Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which is openly courting other cities after Chicago's Friends of the Park filed legal action to prevent the project from building on its chosen Chicago lakefront site, may wind up in San Francisco, although Los Angeles (and Waukegan, IL) have offered themselves up as well. Rahm Emanuel, who was a vocal champion of the Museum's proposed locale, recently suggested a compromise in the form of moving the museum to the Lake Michigan adjacent McCormick Place East, but no one is compromising as of yet.

The prequels to this particular saga:

Will Treasure Island Meet Expectations?

2011-04-19T12:39:41-04:00

On Thursday, the City Planning Commission will be asked to give its final approval to both the environmental impact report for the project and the development itself, with a final hearing before the Board of Supervisors looming.

Chronicle writer John King is starting to sound more luke-warm on this plan, now that several of the more "sustainable" features have been trimmed: "may include" green energy; housing units added (but ferry terminal was moved); redevelopment money off the table... I don't quite get what the Board of Supervisors is voting on. They would be approving an EIR, but does the EIR reflect all the recent changes that make the environmental impact worse? Besides, the number of affordable units has been cut, while the plan overall grew to 8,000 units/19,000 residents. And who are the potential buyers?

More gloomy updates: Quake investment to undergird private development seen as a waste in light of more pressing infrastructure needs around the city. Read | Fewer affordable units: Read | And to make matters worse, even the fire marshall is having doubts!