In San Francisco, 5M development envisions public and private space for the future

The chance to reimagine a four and a half acre site containing both historic buildings to be preserved and lots to be developed in a major American city is rare. For the team behind 5M, a project at a nodal site in downtown San Francisco, this prospect offered exciting potential to engage in all aspects of community building and placemaking. Made by SITELAB, KPF and a host of other companies, 5M reveals a transformed and multi-purpose downtown site after a decade-long process.

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Significant urban design projects at the 5M scale are “about how you chain opportunities together in order to gain momentum and gain more critical mass and power. It’s not about a thing acting on its own,” says Laura Crescimano, co-founder and director of San Francisco-based urban design firm SITELAB Urban Studio, which began work on the site a while ago. ten years. “And that’s the same way we think about the design process.”

Developed and operated by Brookfield Properties, 5M is located between 5th, Mission and Howard streets in a transit-rich area. It opened to the public with an ambitious program on several fronts. The construction phase completed last month includes the 640,000 square foot, 25-story Natoma office building designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, Ankrom Moisan’s George Apartments, Parks at 5M, the historic Dempster Printing Building and the Cameline building. . The cultural program will enliven the landscaped outdoor park which houses a dedicated performance area. The more than 300 units completed so far include both affordable and market-priced units, with more to come. 5M also considers the more than 200,000 square feet of existing office space contained within the historic San Francisco Chronicle and adjacent Examiner buildings owned by the Hearst Corporation, which has partnered with Brookfield on the eligibility process.

Crescimano emphasizes that “the idea of ​​developing really mixed-use”, beyond the simple fact of placing shops on the ground floor with residences and/or offices above, was fundamental. 5M would be a snapshot of a vibrant city and a particular, nuanced place in West SoMa, where old and new are juxtaposed through “that couture and honoring the history of the place,” she says. . The area is home to a long-standing Filipino community and has a connection to labor history, among other significant elements.

Designers, planners, and community advocates have been working to “create this density and mix of character-inspired uses here, which is a little funkier, more playful, and creative,” notes Crescimano. Prioritizing things like pedestrian needs, inclusiveness, and scale for all users and neighbors meant trying to be “integrated, not island-like.” In this sense, 5M should meet the needs of its immediate residents and tenants and be a resource for neighbors and even occasional passers-by.

Extensive public outreach, which included the newly formed 5M Community Advisory Board, shaped every physical and intangible aspect. “While not necessarily the fastest process, these voices make a project better,” Crescimano says of the charettes and forums organized by SITELAB Urban Studio and local partners. Changes to the 5M included materials and colors, as well as seat types and diversity. Another community benefit is public performances and programming overseen in part by CAST (Community Arts Stabilization Trust), which is housed in a donated space at the Dempster Building along with other nonprofit cultural and arts organizations. Instead of using public arts funding to commission “one sculpture and that’s it”, these private public parks can be “more dynamic”. (The !melk firms and Cliff Lowe Associates were the landscape architects for the project.)

Trent Tesch, design director at Kohn Pedersen Fox, echoes the value of public input, which, in addition to other considerations, changed the physical layout of 5M during planning and rights. The 5M Master Plan contained guidelines helping to regulate the articulation, color and texture of the new buildings. The wind tests also changed final decisions about where to place buildings, and when it came to determining setbacks, “it was fine-tuning and making a very bespoke building,” he tells About the 415 Natoma.

The narrative of the contemporary workplace is being rewritten in our present time, but there were a few things the design team was certain of. “There was a real desire not to make another building that was just a glass box,” says Tesch. (The team also included House & Robertson Architects.) On this plot between 5th, Howard, Natoma and Mary streets surrounded by notable eclecticism, “we really pushed to make sure we did a building that had a lot of character. and fabric on the facade.” The result contains an intimate lobby and a series of bays along Mary Street that make for a “more inclusive” building that invests “more in the backstreet structure of San Francisco than the mainline.” , he adds.

The podium on the tenth floor of 415 Natoma contains two decks with contrasting and distinct views of the city and San Francisco Bay. The tower then splits into two articulated volumes of different heights which nevertheless remain visually connected. “The idea is that they kiss,” Tesch says. KPF designed what Tesch describes as a “seven and three” system based on a 10-foot module that wraps around the facade; seven of the 10 feet are glass and the others opaque, compared to a typical five-foot module on an office tower. The eliminated mullion means “you save the seven-foot window.” To me, this is a more elegant solution.

As San Franciscans begin to visit, experience and discover the multiple features and spaces of 5M, the team’s early engagement will help spark conversations that address issues here and beyond. “What is our daily routine? What do we want from our cities? No one wants a generic place. There is a shared value in connecting to local culture and community,” says Crescimano of SITELAB Urban Studio. “I think that puts this project in a position to respond to how the city can evolve.”

This article originally appeared in Metropolis.