Have you ever walked by the corner of Market & Buchanan and asked yourself "is anything happening with this old gas station?"
The answer is yes. Eventually. At some point.
Join us while we catch you up on 1960 Market Street.
In 2009, a developer named Brian Spiers got approval from the city to build 115 condominiums in the space you see above. The approval was initially delayed due to issues raised by the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council. According to that SFGate article, the Council "appealed the Planning Commission’s approval for the project to proceed without a formal environmental impact report." But Spiers told SFGate "I feel they’re extorting me to get a labor contract, plain and simple." Spiers eventually won the battle in September 2009 after the Supervisors denied the appeal. He got the green light to build, but the project has been delayed ever since.
According to CurbedSF, "Things were delayed through late 2010, when the conditions of approval were revised to include housing the required below market rate units off‐site rather than on‐site and removing the subterranean part of the parking garage. By July 2011, the existing gas station on the site was demo’d, and early this year they got the permits for the initial excavation and shoring."
So there we have it. Permits have been granted and construction may begin soon.
One of our favorite parts of this story is that when the design was proposed, it was affectionately called "a monster". Why was it called a monster? Because the exterior is mostly glass and doesn't look like the rest of the Victorian buildings surrounding it. (We know some people get upset when a residential building doesn't look like it belongs on Full House, but "monster" is a bit much, no?) The 95,000 ft² building was designed by Arquitectonica, a firm that has offices in New York, Los Angeles and Miami. And since you're wondering what a monster looks like, it looks like this:
Arquitectonica/Market & Buchanan Condominium
Run for your lives. The Glass Goblin is coming.
In 2009, a developer named Brian Spiers got approval from the city to build 115 condominiums in the space you see above. The approval was initially delayed due to issues raised by the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council. According to that SFGate article, the Council "appealed the Planning Commission’s approval for the project to proceed without a formal environmental impact report." But Spiers told SFGate "I feel they’re extorting me to get a labor contract, plain and simple." Spiers eventually won the battle in September 2009 after the Supervisors denied the appeal. He got the green light to build, but the project has been delayed ever since.
One of our favorite parts of this story is that when the design was proposed, it was affectionately called "a monster". Why was it called a monster? Because the exterior is mostly glass and doesn't look like the rest of the Victorian buildings surrounding it. (We know some people get upset when a residential building doesn't look like it belongs on Full House, but "monster" is a bit much, no?) The 95,000 ft² building was designed by Arquitectonica, a firm that has offices in New York, Los Angeles and Miami. And since you're wondering what a monster looks like, it looks like this:
Arquitectonica/Market & Buchanan Condominium
