Speaking of adding floors and unprotected views, a reader wonders how much higher the soon to be re-skinned building at 680 Folsom Street will rise. Our answer: with two floors having been added atop the original twelve-story building, it goes no higher as the renovation has topped out at fourteen floors, although there will be mechanical above.
The renovated building which should be ready for occupancy by November 2013 will yield 505,000 square feet of office space and a public plaza on the corner of Folsom and Third Streets on which a new 15,000-square-foot retail or cultural building will also rise.
And of course, as the buildings at 680 and 690 Folsom Street previously appeared:
∙ Renovation Of 680/690 Folsom Slated To Get Going This November [SocketSite]
∙ A Re-Skinning Crane Has Risen At 680 Folsom Street [SocketSite]
∙ You’ve Been Warned: Let There Be Less Light And Fewer Views [SocketSite]
A welcome change from the old, abandoned building it used to be. It is also great to see them finding ways to reskin and reuse the old structure rather than tear it down and start over. If all development in the city was this smart, it would be a saner place to live.
Now if they would only reskin some of those horrific 80s/90s buildings on Market near Van Ness that would be a huge visual improvement as well.
Nice project and re-use of the existing frame and foundations.
I think we will also begin to see more of this done to the older 80’s/90’s buildings on Market St. as well.
@Mark, I’d expect that the buildings on Market/Van Ness will be razed and replaced with towers per the city’s re-zoned height limits in that exact area.
@ Mark
With news like this, we’re on our way with the right type of forward-leaning companies to rethink the look of the buildings. Let’s also see what Dolby does w/their new digs.
http://www.sfgate.com/business/bottomline/article/Square-to-move-to-S-F-s-Mid-Market-3972604.php
Has anyone noticed work on the annex building to the north along Hawthorne? Last I checked, they hadn’t yet started the re-skinning process on that part (it did look like they had been working inside however).
Speaking of Market and Van Ness, I can’t wait for the AAA building to get a similar treatment.
“Re-skinned” is quite the understatement.