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.

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.

The development features a ruggedly textured red-brown facade, while a landscaped public “canyon” cuts diagonally through the building’s plinth in reference to Californian rock formations. In addition to connecting the offices and residential amenities, the canyon also offers a shortcut from China Basin Park to the center of the Mission Rock neighborhood.

The walls of both the canyon and the eastern side of the tower are jagged with step-backs and overhangs to give the impression of steep rocky walls, while also creating bay windows and small balconies for 40 apartments. Meanwhile, the roof of the plinth is landscaped to create communal spaces for residents.

“With our design, we introduce a feeling of topography to make the building very much connected to its location,” said MVRDV founding partner Nathalie de Vries about the complex. “Crucially, this approach also enabled us to contribute to a lively neighborhood: With the public ravine as its focal point, The Canyon creates a landscape of activity where the public realm connects to the shops, offices, and homes to keep Mission Rock busy and alive. And, thanks to the inclusion of below-market-rate rentals, it’s a neighborhood that will be accessible to the city’s nurses, teachers… and other essential workers that keep the city running.”

For the project’s development, MVRDV worked with executive architect Perry Architects, landscape architect GLS Landscape/Architecture, PAE Engineers, structural engineer Magnusson Klemencic Associates, and contractor Swinerton Builder.

News of the scheme comes in the same month that MVRDV began construction on a Chengdu development inspired by bamboo-weaving traditions. The firm has also recently completed a demountable science building in Amsterdam.