Curran House Affordable Housing, Apartments, Community, Shop
San Francisco, California

Affordable family housing When most people think of the Tenderloin of San Francisco they don't think of families. This district is the home for many economically struggling families. Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation and the SF Mayor's Office of Housing have combined to develop Curran House, very high density -- 223 large units per acre -- housing for this need.

Parking varianceCurran House has no on-site automobile parking, which seems like a crazy idea in the modern USA, but made sense here because: most of the residents can't afford a car, the site has excellent public transit connections, and we were able to provide additional units, gardens, common space for supportive services, neighborhood-serving retail, and office space for TNDC. Additionally, providing parking minimums would have added several million dollars to the construction cost, while ample monthly parking is available for lease in the immediate neighborhood at reasonable rates.

Contextual design
Blending the historic and urban typology, Curran House respects the existing National Historic Registry eligible District while being a fresh building that is of it's own time. It respects the "urban street edge" and activates that edge with pedestrian oriented retail space.

awards

Gold Nugget Merit Award: Affordable Project over 40/Units per Acre
Pacific Coast Builders Conference
National Honor Award: General Design
American Society of Landscape Architects
Excellence in Architecture: Citation Award
American Institute of Architects, San Francisco
National Grand Award: Affordable Housing
Residential Architect
Builder's Choice Special Focus Award: Urban Garden
Builder's Magazine

publications

Gems of the City: A List of SF's Top 25
Gems of the City: A List of S.F.'s Top 25
Infill Solutions

endorsed by:

Housing Action Coalition
Urban Ecology
City Carshare
Walk San Francisco

project details

Associate Architect

Gelfand Partners Architects

Landscape Architect

Andrea Cochran Landscape Architects

Geotech Engineer

Treadwell + Rollo

Mechanical/Plumbing Engineer

Tommy Siu + Associates

Electrical Engineer

OLMM Consulting Engineers

Color Consultant

Shift Design Studio

Contractor

Cahill Contractors