The Kelsey Civic Center Affordable, inclusive, low-carbon housing in the heart of San Francisco
An urban infill residential facade precedent demonstrating how contemporary multi-family massing handles corner conditions and integrates with historic civic settings.
- What we like about this project
- The glowing stacked corner bays create a lantern-like effect that anchors the acute site geometry against the wider boulevard.
Materials
- metal-panels
- glass
- concrete
- aluminum-frames
Visual identifiers
- chamfered-corner
- stacked-bay-windows
- vertical-panel-grid
- urban-infill
Style tags
- contemporary
- urban-infill
- contextual
Visual tags
- mixed-use
- urban-facade
- dusk-lighting
- affordable-housing
- contextual-design
- Geometry
- An angled multi-story urban infill massing with a prominent chamfered corner bay facing the street intersection, articulated with vertical panel grids and rhythmic window modules.
- Facade system
- Panelized rainscreen cladding system paired with punched and bay window assemblies.
- Structural guess
- Post-tensioned concrete or steel frame with non-structural panel cladding.
- Spatial scale
- Mid-rise urban residential building spanning several stories, scaled appropriately to the surrounding streetwall and civic context.
- Lighting
- Twilight sky with warm interior lighting glowing from the stacked corner window bays; light trails from traffic streak across the foreground.
- Atmosphere
- Vibrant, civic dusk atmosphere bridging contemporary residential warmth with historic urban grandeur.
- Environmental context
- Urban street intersection in San Francisco, featuring adjacent historic civic architecture with a green dome and neighboring urban infill buildings.
- Spatial experience
- From the multi-lane boulevard, the building presents an active urban edge, anchoring the street corner and contrasting modern infill density against the civic dome in the background.
- Composition rhythm
- Vertical window banding and panel divisions align with a regular structural grid, emphasized by the dramatic corner projection.
- Style reading
- Contemporary urban residential architecture
- Program
- Affordable multi-family housing with ground-floor active use
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- metal-panels, glass, concrete, aluminum-frames
- Visual identifiers
- chamfered-corner, stacked-bay-windows, vertical-panel-grid, urban-infill
- Style tags
- contemporary, urban-infill, contextual
- Visual tags
- mixed-use, urban-facade, dusk-lighting, affordable-housing, contextual-design
- Geometry
- An angled multi-story urban infill massing with a prominent chamfered corner bay facing the street intersection, articulated with vertical panel grids and rhythmic window modules.
- Facade system
- Panelized rainscreen cladding system paired with punched and bay window assemblies.
- Structural guess
- Post-tensioned concrete or steel frame with non-structural panel cladding.
- Spatial scale
- Mid-rise urban residential building spanning several stories, scaled appropriately to the surrounding streetwall and civic context.
- Lighting
- Twilight sky with warm interior lighting glowing from the stacked corner window bays; light trails from traffic streak across the foreground.
- Atmosphere
- Vibrant, civic dusk atmosphere bridging contemporary residential warmth with historic urban grandeur.
- Environmental context
- Urban street intersection in San Francisco, featuring adjacent historic civic architecture with a green dome and neighboring urban infill buildings.
- Spatial experience
- From the multi-lane boulevard, the building presents an active urban edge, anchoring the street corner and contrasting modern infill density against the civic dome in the background.
- Composition rhythm
- Vertical window banding and panel divisions align with a regular structural grid, emphasized by the dramatic corner projection.
- Style reading
- Contemporary urban residential architecture
- Program
- Affordable multi-family housing with ground-floor active use
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture