Back in 1908, a rather fine seven-story loft building designed by MacDonald & Applegarth was built upon the 1055 Market Street parcel which stretches from Market to Stevenson Street.
A six-alarm fire started by an arsonist destroyed the Forrest Building in 1979. And in 1981, a not so fine two-story building was built and occupied by Kaplan’s Surplus and Sport Goods until the store was shuttered and the building was sold by the Kaplan family for $4.5 million in December of 2013.
Plans for a ten-story hotel to rise upon the Mid-Market site have been in the works since 2014, as we first reported at the time.
And with some confusion as to the historic merits of the existing versus previous building on the 1055 Market Street site having since been clarified and San Francisco’s Planning Department having just determined the proposed hotel project – which now includes 160 rooms over 2,200 square feet of ground floor retail space fronting Market, with the hotel’s main lobby fronting Stevenson – would not have a significant effect on the environment, and as such doesn’t require a resource intensive environmental impact report to move forward, the project could soon be one big step closer to being approved.
Only 10 stories?! This should at least go up to 20
The site is zoned for development up to 90 feet in height, which is the height of the project as proposed.
Gone AND forgotten? Well no but…for Pete’s sake: why tantalize us with mention of a “rather fine” building and then not show us what it looked like…
It would be cool if they included a few of those design elements of the facade as a nod to the past, rather than building what appears to be a cardboard box
Thanks! You read my mind, and then satisfied the curiosity with the link. It was a nice building, indeed.
This block looks just as depressed as it did in the old photo.
Everything looks worse in black and white.
(I’ve heard)
Thank you for the pic!
The Stevenson side is better. I’m not sure what historical nod the Market side is giving other than being symmetrical.
I really like the design – it’s a great mix of “conservative” on the Market Street side, and modern.
Tragic we are not upzoning in the most transit dense area west of the Mississippi, but the hotel is going to help this seedy stretch quite a bit.
Building the hotel will surely help the area by providing easy targets for muggings and assaults.
I find it hysterical that someone either tried to argue about the historical merits of maintaining a building that had burned down, or tried to do so for a two-story box built in 1981.
Exactly. It’s been gone for 36 years!
But, but… shouldn’t we preserve the historic context of the 2 story frontage!?
I’m surprised Planning is apparently allowing them to put essentially the rear of the building on Market.
The article says that the retail (2200 sqft) will face Market while the hotel will face Stevenson. The upper floors (e.g., the hotel) will probably look like any other non-descript building on this block, albeit newer.
This design (which I hope is super preliminary) perfectly exemplifies why SF needs tighter design guidelines/requirements or materials standards for Market St, as well as any other [should-be] celebrated thoroughfare.
A hotel lobby facing THAT block of Stevenson !?!? ?
That block is one of the most tragic and sad ones I’ve seen in SF.
Littered with used needles etc.
It’s pretty strange! Guests will have to walk to the middle of a very long alley fronted by industrial buildings, backs of buildings, parking lots, and almost no retail.
There is a pizza place way up at the 6th Street side. 1075 Market is just about to open and has a retail space fronting Stevenson, rendered as a bar during the planning process. The parking lot opposite Stevenson from this hotel is planned to become supportive housing for homeless vets. Didn’t see anything about retail in that project, let alone facing Stevenson.
The two story commercial building at 519 Stevenson is zoned for development up to 160 feet tall, but who knows if it’ll be developed anytime soon or if that height is viable on such a small lot.
So yes, hard to imagine this block becoming much of a destination.
With respect to the hotel lobby and need to navigate Stevenson Street, please see our comment below.
A non-remarkable building for a pretty plain section of Market St. Nothing special is being built anywhere along this stretch and it’s likely consigned to remain a plain stretch of Market and hardly a celebrated thoroughfare anymore..
That said, at least the architects put some effort into the design which is more than can be said for the majority of new SF projects. . The spire and roofline are welcome and the Market St. window treatment is not too bad. It is not jarring vis a vis the adjacent older structures which have some nice detail.
As to the Stevenson entrance, I suppose in deference to traffic considerations it makes more sense than fronting on Market – though Stevenson remains a pretty nasty street.
I know that block of Stevenson St. as I’ve had a very different kind of pizza at
Montesacro Pinseria. It take a lot of guts to get there via 6th St.. The first time I ate at Monesacro a crazy person sat at the the table with me – the owner immediately took control of the situation and was apologetic. Stevenson St. is not a place I would want to walk in at night!
I live 2-1/2 blocks from the site. I slept through the sirens, awoke in the morning wondering why there was smoke rising up not far away! I missed quite a big one that night
While the hotel’s lobby is designed to face Stevenson, you might note the second set of double doors on the left hand side of the rendering for the Market Street facade above. And yes, said doors are a secondary entrance and exit to the hotel for pedestrians who’d rather not activate Stevenson.
In related news a block away with a Stevenson Street exposure as well: Plans for Another Big Mid-Market Hotel and More
UPDATE: Mid-Market Hotel Closer to Reality but Planning Has a Concern