Oh, the irony. From the remarks field in the majority of The Mark Company listings for new units in The Beacon: “Come see SF’s Hottest new building.” (For those who don’t know, The Mark Company is the exclusive sales and marketing company for The Beacon, and some of the units in the building are suffering from serious problems of overheating.)
∙ The Mark Company: The Beacon [themarkcompany.com]
Just give me a break, you prima donnas!! How can SF be hot? Do you think Mark Twain was wrong???
Oh, you’d be surprised. It’s not just the temperature outside, but the combination of sun exposure and lack of fully opening windows that creates the problem. I’ve been in some luxury condo buildings in SF that experience the same “heat-gain” issue.
Which other buildings? I assume that the beacon isnt unique in that respect.
Most lofts in SF suffer from this problem actually. They only have windows on one side, so you can’t set up a cross-draft. Only units on the top-floor with skylights are able to naturally draft themselves.
I can count on one hand the number of loft buildings in SF that have AC built in. It’s a shame, they all really need it. A condo is not a big deal since they almost always have windows on more than one face of the structure.
Mark Twain never stayed at The Beacon, where room temperatures can approach 90 degrees on sunny days…with no A/C.
The vast majority of the units there have windows on just one wall – no cross ventilation, and kind of dark.
What a bunch of princesses. You don’t know what hot is. Are all these complaints made by spoiled brats who used their parents’ money to buy these places and who have never seen a hard day in their lives??
[Editor’s Note: Normally we’d remove this type of comment, but we appreciate how the next two commenters responded so we’ll just let it be for context.]
Well, I don’t know about the others but I saved up 80k myself over 7 years to purchase a tri-level loft in 2004. Just sold it a few months ago for a tidy profit.
Making fun of the properties is one thing. But it’s pretty tacky to make fun of folks you don’t know.
Ditto. All done myself through hard work, careful saving, and research before buying. (I wondered where all those strong reactions were coming from!) Anyway, back to the topic… I’d speculate that lots of modern archtecture in SF (flat walls with large windows that don’t fully open) suffers from bad ventilation and heat that wasn’t predicted because of SF’s climate. I’ve experienced it firsthand in a south-facing unit at the Yerba Buena Lofts and even a North-facing unit at Hills Plaza. My current South-facing condo on Nob Hill would be an oven even in winter if it weren’t for layers of window coverings. With regard to the Beacon, the overall drama surrounding the property makes it an easy target, but even more mature properties have histories of ongoing problems due to poor design or workmanship. (By the way, I know what hot is. I’m from Tucson.)
While I respect the sentiments of the above ‘two’ posters, it is also true that the ‘princesses” referred to earlier do exist, and in droves. It is just that they don’t visit Socketsite!
Hi…
My son is in escrow on unit 957 at the Beacon…and we are looking for good window coverings to block out the heat. He is installing ceiling fans. Who has ideas?
[Editor’s Note: Reader responses: Window Coverings: Can You Beat The Heat And Help A Reader Out?.]