It's been over a year since we covered plans for Parcels M and N, two narrow Octavia Boulevard-adjacent lots where two micro-unit apartment buildings are in the works. Despite the lack of visible progress, the project is still trucking along behind the scenes. Architect Douglas Burnham from envelopeA+D, which is handling the development, gave us an update.
The project was presented to the Recreation and Parks Commission last December, receiving unanimous approval despite one concern: the building on parcel M (on the corner of Fell and Octavia) will cast a "minor shadow" on Patricia's Green. This concern was dismissed after a shadow study was done, showing that it would only affect the Green on December mornings for about an hour and a half.
Another slight hurdle was the exterior facade, which has been redesigned since our last article. "The Planning Department requested non-reflective vertical lift shades, and we came up with a perforated bronze screen wall that seemed to satisfy them," said Burnham.
The newly-designed bronze shades, which can be raised and lowered.
The format of the interior units has also evolved slightly. The Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association (HVNA) requested more family-friendly units in the building. In response, Burnham changed the mix to include four two-bedroom, 890-square-foot units in each building, in addition to the eight 370- and 440-square-foot micro-units in each building, for a total of 24 units, all told.
"This didn’t really change the look of the project very much and we were happy to make the change," he told us.
Burnham will be presenting the updated design at the next HVNA meeting on April 28th, in advance of a Planning Commission hearing on May 5th.
"We’ve been woking on trying to get this thing built since 2005, so the Recreation and Parks Commission wanted to give us some kind of award for tenacity," Burnham said. If all goes according to plan, Burnham says he expects the project to be under construction in a year, perhaps even by the end of 2016.
