New multifamily housing in S.F. is mostly ugly. Here’s how we get better designs |
Sidell Pakravan Architects’ light-filled proposal for a six-story single-stair building in San Francisco won second place in the National Single Stair Architectural Design Competition.
It used to be quite common to build lovely mid-rise, medium-sized apartment buildings throughout San Francisco.
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The San Francisco Planning Department’s 2024 Housing Inventory Report showed that of the 1,735 homes added that year, only 163 were in medium-sized buildings (5 to 19 units).
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That’s a shame for a variety of reasons.
I recently wrote about what San Francisco could learn from Parisian-style density in the form of six-story buildings. Paris’ Haussmann buildings make uniformity elegant. Great attention is paid to materials and design details and bringing in an abundance of light and air. At ground level, the buildings activate the street with cafes, restaurants and shops. It’s what many refer to as gentle density, bridging the gap between high-rises and single-family homes.
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So, why aren’t we building more of those here?
Typically, modern apartment buildings require two exit stairwells, connected by a hallway. These rules were implemented for fire safety. But they make it particularly difficult to fit multifamily developments on San Francisco’s small neighborhood lots. That second set of stairs takes up way more space and costs way more money than you might think and dictates to a large degree what a building ends up looking like — typically not for the better. Long double-loaded corridors result in smaller units with fewer windows and less light. More money and attention need to be paid to the exits and the hallways. The look of the facade and the building interior suffers.
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Eliminating the two-stairwell........