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.
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 in the waterfront site, which had previously been used as a parking facility for Oracle Park.
Per the Architects: "The tower's horizontal spandrels alternate in profile to tune the solar and wind exposure of units to their climate and orientation, while also providing views of the surrounding city and Bay. The sculpting strategy continues up the tower, where floorplates are carved back at the corners to create comfortable outdoor terraces that complement San Francisco’s indoor-outdoor lifestyle."
Parcel F will have 254 residential units overall, and pursue a LEED Gold certificate, according to the Studio. The 11-building development, which is being overseen by the San Francisco office of Perkins&Will, includes 3,000 additional new parking spaces and rehabilitation of the site's historic Pier 48. Completion of the entire development is set to come in 2025.
6 Comments
why is it all crooked?
It's how the fancy architects justify their premium fee for doing what is really just a stack of repetitive box apartments.
In the 1980's, stars of the period like Philip Johnson or Cesar Pelli would have designed a facade to cover a purely rectangular building. Now the game is to slightly push and pull the floor slabs around to create stepped and/or twisty things.
Simply put, rotation creates bonus exterior spaces which can be great if used. And, sure, the design capital. Plus, "look those trees up there!" They are imagined as vertical parks but usually end up highly scrutinized cold corporate decks with nice photos.
This particular design is kind of weak because, according to the SF Chronicle, the balconies occur only at every 3rd floor and are somehow going to be shared among the residents.
I did a project in college where I spent a ton of time doing program and broad formal investigations, so when I ran out of time the buildings basically just expressed the floor slabs literally. Turns out I was seeing the future.
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