420 Berry Street Affordable Housing, Apartments, Townhouses
San Francisco, California
large image slideshow | project details

DB+P staff tour the construction site.

420 Berry Street under construction.

420 Berry Street rendering by Art Zendarski.

This new rental community maximizes a tear-shaped site defined by the curve of CalTrain railroad tracks in the emerging Mission Bay neighborhood. A four-story building, entered through stacked double-height lobbies, establishes a defined edge along the street. Bays and recesses, pedestrian entries, private patios, decks, and garden notches provide relief and texture to this edge. To the rear, the building fans into an array of "fingers" with ample garden courtyards widening between them. A newly created landscaped street divides the main building's gardens from a row of townhouses--two-level units stacked atop studios--that buffer the development from both the sight and sounds of the tracks. A dedicated surface parking lot nearby keeps resident's cars close at hand but leaves the through-street uncluttered.

Typical upper floor plan.

Site plan.

Diagram defines the major issues with the site: the unusual shape, the train tracks, and the freeway passing overhead.

Aerial computer rendering generated in house from Revit digital model also used for contract documents.

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project details

Architect

David Baker + Partners

Landscape Architect

Andrea Cochran Landscape Architects

Structural Engineer

Structural Design Engineers

Electrical Engineer

Bhatia Associates

Client

The Related Companies of California

Contractor

Nibbi Brothers General Contractors

project data
420 Berry Street
 20323
San Francisco, California
under construction, projected completion date: June 2007
number of units
studio 81
1 bedroom 90
2 bedroom 65
total 236
density ratios
project sf 185,000
site sf 155,597
acres 3.57
total bedrooms 301
bedrooms/acre 84
units/acre 66
parking
total 177
spaces/unit 0.75
type car + motorcycle