OCTAVIA BLVD. MIXED USE BUILDING San Francisco, CA

This  entry for a 2005 competition proposes a unique mixed-use program and overcomes the limitations of a pair of long and unusually shallow lots created by the removal of the Central Freeway from an otherwise dense urban neighborhood. 

Art galleries activate the street level, while artists studio spaces line a publicly accessible boardwalk above. On the top three floors, one and two bedroom flats span across open light wells, planted to provide privacy and shade for the occupants and greenery and oxygen for all.  

Conceived as a highly sustainable addition to the urban fabric, the design proposes an open, concrete retail plinth carrying a series of prefabricated, repetitive modular units. The structure could be built 30% faster than traditional site-built construction, and cost-effectively achieve highly efficient Passive House standards through the efficiency of factory-built components.