New building permits have been filed for a 26-story mixed-use tower at 896 Folsom Street in the SoMa neighborhood of San Francisco. The project will add over a hundred apartments and retail to a small corner lot three blocks from Market Street. The project will replace the existing office space of the project’s developer, FORMA Development Design & Management.
896 Folsom Street podium view, rendering by FORMA
The 258-foot-tall structure is expected to yield around 114,070 square feet, including 90,730 square feet of housing, 5,010 square feet for parking, and 600 square feet of ground-level retail. The ground-floor and basement levels will provide parking for 33 cars and 112 bicycles, including basement-level vehicle stackers.
The applicant invoked several state laws to streamline the permitting process and achieve such high density, including Assembly Bill 1287, AB2011, Senate Bill 330, and the State Density Bonus law. Of the 130 units, 20 will be deed-restricted as affordable housing. Unit sizes will vary, with 68 studios and 62 three-bedroom residences.
896 Folsom Street facade elevation overlooking 5th Street, rendering by FORMA
FORMA is overseeing the project management and architectural design. The narrow tower’s street-facing exteriors will be wrapped with floor-to-ceiling windows and balconies, as well as a ceramic panel feature and a 25th-floor setback to complement the verticality. The rear facades will be mostly featureless, allowing for potential future development on adjacent lots.
As previously mentioned, the subject property includes the existing offices for the project developer. Demolition will be required for the low-slung commercial building. Hado Development Group is listed as the property owner, operating through Hado LLC.
Elsewhere in the city, FORMA is looking to build an even skinnier tower at 777 Sutter Street. New building permits were filed around the same time for a 27-story infill tower with just 36 units.
896 Folsom Street vertical cross-section, illustration by FORMA
896 Folsom Street, image via Google Satellite
896 Folsom Street, image via Google Street View
The roughly 0.1-acre property is located by the corner of Folsom Street and 5th Street, two blocks from Moscone Center. Future residents will be a four-minute walk away from the Yerba Buena/Moscone underground light rail station.
The estimated cost and timeline for construction have yet to be shared.
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the building that currently exists there is hideous. thank god.
Wes: Don’t know if hideous is the right description of the existing building – underdeveloped for its site for sure- and it was definitely more appealing when it was inhabited/maintained (by a company called Vehicle and others I cant’ recall).
However, this new tower could definitely use some aesthetic help of its own. From the aerial view it looks like a poor cousin to the Intercontinental a block away (itself a questionable design originally derided for looking like it belonged more in Miami than SF). From the close up views of this 896 Folsom project, the rounded corners seem at odds with the staggered windows, textured facade panels and giant “frame” elements. The whole thing seems like just a mish-mash of trendy design moves, not a serious piece of architecture – which may be the result of the owner/builder not actually hiring a decent architect. Perhaps the strategy is saving money by doing design in-house, but the project’s size, prominent corner location and visibility in the foreground of the SF skyline arguably deserve better architectural design.
Well said.
hideous is the right description here. TF is up with that angled wall and ugly paint job? 🙁
Every time I walk past it I think FML.
What, this isn’t philosophy of architecture class. Its a nice looking building in a dense neighborhood with lots of vacant lots and large institutional buildings. There isn’t much historic character of the streetscape, there’s lots of concrete and parking garages nearby, like who cares if this as a masterpiece, its housing and it looks kind of cool.
I’ve been reading for months and years on this site about all these proposed projects, and it seems like I’ve not seen one construction crane go up. Will any of this ever actually happen??
I wouldn’t bet on this one at least.
They’re waiting for demand to return to pre covid conditions, which more traffic is happening dtsf but it will get built at some point
I saw an image from Star Trek set in SF in 2290, and there was finally construction happening on this specific site in that timeframe.
I know renderings usually ignore street/transit infrastructure but anyone know if they are keeping the bus shelter? Seems like they might remove it for the retail windows.
I think we’re safe. I don’t believe bus shelters get removed because a structure has windows.
That bus shelter is already removed, it happened after the 31 Balboa was truncated so no buses stop on 5th any more.
I saw an image from Star Trek set in SF in 2290, and there was finally construction happening on this specific site.
Downtown SF is looking, as a commenter wrote, like downtown Miami, which is not at all a good thing. If you showed the initial picture, and asked someone where it was, no one would ever guess SF. It’s really a shame when a city loses its identity. At least New York’s identity of high-rises everywhere can’t be lost.
Y’all are on something else…
A derelict 2-story structure surrounded by filthy sidewalks on a street burdened by smashed windows, auto shops clogging up traffic, is quintessential San Francisco? Or is it the beauty of an abandoned wrecked gas station across the street that adds to the character? Dare I say the fresh smell of piss on 6th street really defines that hustle and bustle of SF?
The ugliest structures within a 1/4-mile radius have been standing for 40+ years. This tower’s architecture is questionable, but everything else about your comment clearly shows you’re off your rocker.
NIMBYs like ‘mark’ would have opposed the advancement from the stone age to the bronze age.
‘Its identity’ is such an unthinking, memorized red herring. Weak people fear change, that is all it is.
Are you with the NIMBYs?
Great to see a project with half 3-bedroom units, in SF no less! This is remarkable. The City should do more to incentive larger, family-sized units in new developments.