299 Valencia 4/3/12 (www.SocketSite.com)

Much of the scaffolding has been removed from around 299 Valencia, the building of 36 one and two-bedroom condos over retail and 27 parking spots on the corner of Valencia and 14th Streets where a surface area parking lot once laid.

As the building was most recently rendered, prior to a bout of VE:

299 Valencia Rendering

27 thoughts on “299 Valencia Unwrapped”
  1. double helpings of grittiness and reality courtesy of the project next door!
    should help the neighborhood though.

  2. I used to live caddie corner from this lot in the early ninety’s and find it pretty shocking that this is now a desirable area.

  3. Hope they’re still going to build the rendered awning around that column on the corner, looks kind of janky without it.

  4. I was relieved to see no awnings. Hope they kill the resort-y awnings. Why make it look like beachside Alameda? (tho it works there).

  5. I’m surprised at the relatively positive reaction here. I find the result significantly more boring than the rendering (which wasn’t particularly interesting to begin with).
    Losing the blue tint on the windows and the cantilevered balcony roofs on the top floor, and adding those ornamental whatever-the-are along the roofline (which I also preferred with the rendering’s lower profile) are all changes for the worse.

  6. ^^^ correction: they obviously didn’t lose the top-floor balcony roofs/shades– just made them blocky and inelegant.

  7. I could care less about the awnings, but that corner column and design is atrocious. Overall bland mission-bay-in-the-misson design in a hip ‘hood and another missed opportunity for something distinctive if you ask me.

  8. They could design it after dog poop and people would buy it in this city. Architects don’t care about their legacies or aesthetics, it’s all about the $$ now.

  9. the corner column is pretty bad but cantilevers are expensive… almost every building with a diagonal corner entrance has a pillar in the middle of it. Physics is a bitch sometimes.

  10. A just unveiled building does not have an interactive website with renderings or photos but rather a “save your place in line button”? Remind me never to go with the realtor selling this place…. who is not even identified. But on the more positive note with this just one block from my house I am trilled.

  11. TB, I agree, I used to live on Brosnan Street across the street from this back in the days of the old projects – the goal was to move away from this rundown area not overpay to become a hipster hamster.

  12. Like it or not, so called “run down” parts of SF keep changing and will continue to change. That’s how great cities evolve.
    I’d rather walk Valencia now, full of shops and restaurants with tons of people around than be there a few years ago when it was run down and not safe.
    Change is good.

  13. I think that it looks even better in person. Seeing how the first floor finishes out and depending on what sort of shops lease the space, this could be a great improvement to the area.

  14. “I used to live caddie corner from this lot in the early ninety’s and find it pretty shocking that this is now a desirable area.”
    There were farms still in SF when my grandfather was a kid, and there were no high rises when my parents were kids
    So the point I am making is you are just getting old

  15. Calling this area “desirable” is certainly a huge stretch! However, since they re-did the Valencia Gardens housing project, and started booting all the drug dealers from public housing nationwide in the 90s, this area certainly is not the war zone it used to be.

  16. Seems to me that the main differences in the elevations -thicker spandrels, floor edges and overhangs – have resulted from the realities of wood frame construction vs the PT concrete structure that would be required to produce the proportions shown in the renderings. The V-E’rs win again and a building – and a neighborhood -loses.

  17. Back in the 80s, I had a friend who lived in this area whom I’d go visit on ocassion. As a fearless teenager, I’d walk down 14th or 15th St at night and routinely be offered “rocks” or “hubba” or “20 shots” on the block between Guerrero and Valencia. Would occasionally hear gun shots and breaking glass coming from within the walled projects as well.
    My how times have changed.
    Calling this area “desirable” is certainly a huge stretch!
    I don’t think it’s a stretch at all. Maybe not for old folks, but for young professionals who want to live an active, urban lifestyle, this area is VERY desirable. Bike lanes everywhere, good food, good drink, close to public transportation,… Sure it’s still gritty in some spots, but nowhere is perfect. Even the most “desirable” neighborhoods have many undesirable attributes.

  18. They have a Twitter feed @299Valencia that’s mostly stuff about the neighborhood, but today they included a floorplate. Not very high res but you still can get the idea of unit layouts. Looks like it’s on their Facebook page as well, while the website still doesn’t offer much more than neighborhood activity shots.

  19. This isn’t a great location because the area is still rough and it is at the far end of Valencia, but it is convenient to the much of the attractions of the area. There probably won’t be lots of families moving in here, but it is a reasonable first purchase for someone. As for design, it looks just like everything else that is currently being build.

  20. Way overpriced at over $800 a square foot. Also its build on liquefaction so good luck in the next earthquake.

  21. How could you know $/sq ft, without knowing the size of the units??? Have they made that info available?

  22. J i was able to get some information from a friend. Total rip off but i sure some idiots will pay that price – for living off of Interstate-14 (14th St). The “starting at” prices are a joke. Yeah you’re paying $600,000 but they dont tell you its for a 500 sqft condo.

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