Preliminary permits have been filed for a proposed development at 385 South Winchester Boulevard inside San Jose’s Santana Row/Valley Fair Urban Village boundaries. The permits show two different uses are under consideration for the site. The first option is to build commercial offices, and the second option is to produce residential housing. Ian Birchall + Associates is listed as involved with the project.
50 California Street is tied as the 34th-tallest building in the Bay Area planned or built. The 1972-built tower in San Francisco’s Financial District shares the same height as 555 Mission Street, 487 feet above street level. Originally known as the Union Bank Building, its distinctively ubiquitous modernist design from the Welton Becket architecture firm was part of a larger moment in the city’s development history of rapid economic growth and local anxieties about the ‘Manhattanization’ of the West Coast metropolis.
New plans have been revealed for a forty-unit residential building with affordable housing at 4199 Mission Street, on the border between Excelsior and the Outer Mission in San Francisco. The 65-foot tall structure will yield 54,120 square feet, with 43,700 square feet for residential use and 4,390 square feet for vehicular parking. Gary Gee Architects is responsible for the design.
Permits have been filed to build a new single-family dwelling at 8156 Skyline Boulevard, a vacant parcel on the Oakland Hills by Montclair. The hills have been a historically valuable destination for suburban development with remarkable views across the Bay despite the risks posed by wildfires. John Clark Architects is responsible for the design.
Art Gensler, the founder and namesake for the global architecture firm, passed away in Marin County on May 10th, 2021, at age 85. The San Francisco-based architect founded Gensler with his wife Drue Gensler and their associate, James Follett, in 1965. Over the decades, Gensler has grown to be consistently ranked among the largest studios in the world since the 0s and has worked on many projects that have shaped the Bay Area’s built environment.
