BROADWAY FAMILY APARTMENTS

Location: San Francisco, CA

Completed:   Summer 2008

Broadway Family Apartments, which is situated within a rich historical context in the Northeast waterfront district of San Francisco, was presented with a difficult design challenge:  How to integrate low-income housing into an historic context of mid-rise commercial office buildings which was fragmented years ago through the introduction of the Embarcadero Freeway.

The project responds to this issue by restoring a continuous street wall on the block between Battery and Front Streets to give the neighborhood a cohesive identity which was lost years ago through the construction of the freeway.  This complex of mid-rise and smaller buildings emulates the proportional relationships which characterize the existing context.  It lends a sense of dignity to a previously fractured block, while seamlessly integrating 87 units of low-to-moderate income housing into the neighborhood.  Several semi-public functions augment this intent, providing child care services, common gathering rooms, landscaped courtyards, and street-facing retail spaces which support both the residents of the project and the larger neighborhood.

The design is organized around a continuous circulation spine which links the semi-public functions in the project.  A continuous paving pattern defines the central spine, making a spatial connection between the interior and exterior gathering spaces in the project.