As we first reported earlier this year, plans for a slender 25-story hotel to rise up to 260 feet in height on the 4,000-square-foot parking lot site at 36 Tehama Street have been drafted.

And as designed by Handel Architects for J Street Hospitality, the Transbay District tower would be outfitted with 185 “micro guestrooms,” measuring an average of 180 square feet apiece, stacked on a base of floating glass blocks and topped with a lounge and open rooftop bar.

To quote Planning’s preliminary assessment of the proposed project, which was just finalized, “the project is generally consistent with the overarching objectives of the [Transit Center District Plan].”

And while there is a potential issue with respect to compliance with Section 132.1(d) of San Francisco’s Planning Code, which provides for a minimum separation between area towers in order to ensure “adequate light and air” for all, keep in mind that there are exceptions and concessions that can be made, especially for structures that are less than 300 feet in height.

10 thoughts on “No Major Red Flags for Proposed Tower of Micro Rooms”
    1. There’s a massive shortage of hotel rooms in SF — this project, especially if it can offer efficient/tasteful rooms at a good price point (like Citizen M) — is very likely to get built.

  1. Reminds me of a hotel I’ve stayed at in SoHo. The bathrooms were a little cramped, but overall quite acceptable for a quick trip to New York. If the project doesn’t pencil, it won’t be due to the concept.

  2. This is so awesome! I wish it was like 80 stores. Tall, super skinny are amazing.

    why wouldn’t this get built?

    1. By the time you run an elevator or two, fire escape stairs, in addition to water, power, networks and HVAC down to all of the floors, there’s little room left over for hotel rooms.

      Usually you can spread the elevator and fire escape costs to a much larger number of rooms on each floor. Here, the cost of the services is going to be very high relative to the floor area devoted to rooms.

      1. There’s little room left over for hotel rooms, that’s why the hotel rooms are little. This model obviously assumes that the smaller rooms will go for more $/sq ft than a typical room. Whether or not they bring in enough to cover the costs you mention overall is still a fair question, though…

  3. Sounds awful. A standard queen size bed is about 30 square feet. Does the remaining 150 square feet include the bathroom or is the toilet next to the bed?

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