Tower Of Condos Could Set New Heights For Cathedral Hill
July 31, 2014
Having been redesigned in an attempt to win over Planning, the Board of Supervisors and neighborhood opposition (including the SOS Cathedral Hill gang and owners of the 270-foot-tall Sequoias building next door), The ADCO Group is pushing forward with plans to construct a controversial 36-story tower with 262 condos atop Cathedral Hill.
As proposed, the 1481 Post Street tower would rise to a height of 416-feet and become the highest point on Cathedral Hill, as rendered in a view from Alamo Square:
The Cathedral Hill site, however, is currently only zoned for development up to 240-feet in height and San Francisco’s Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors will need to approve an up-zoning in order for the project to proceed as proposed.
And prior to any hearing with respect to its heights, the 1481 Post Street project will have to survive a review of its potential Environmental Impacts, the public hearing for which has been scheduled for this September.
The project also includes the construction of a 2,200 square foot café along Post Street; a 10-foot-wide public walkway that would provide a mid-block pedestrian passage between Post and Geary; and a subsurface parking garage with 262 parking spaces for residents in the new tower and 176 replacement spaces for residents of 1333 Gough Street (whose existing garage, tennis courts and pool building would be demolished for the project).
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What happened to the beautiful tower that was proposed in 2007?
This area is perfect for high-rise development as it already has at least 3 towers over 20 floors, was gutted by the Fillmore redevelopment and is a virtual windy wasteland at street level (which could improve with desity)…not sure whats “controversial” about this project (other than the typical neighbor freakout — including that from the next door towers).
Not to mention it’s next to a high capacity freeway- like street and Geary BRT should be complete some time in 2310.
Ha ha +1 Hope it’s a lot sooner
not that I’m against density but I’m still waiting for it to improve street life in Rincon Hill :-p
Street life is improving in Rincon Hill. I can now walk to a local chocolatier / high-end coffee spot a mere two blocks away (SoCola), and look forward to the park on Guy Place. Development is slowly improving the area – think of how desolate 1st / Howard was five years ago compared to the bustle in Foundry Square today.
In support of. Another 10 like this please — Planning rezone the whole Geary/Fillmore corridor and create more needed ownership opportunities.
As for the SOM original — would much prefer that elegant structure over this safe, pleasant enough derivative thing — but glad something is moving forward.
Agreed. This is much too safe for so visible a tower.
This same slant top is being proposed again and again for new towers in San Francisco. I miss the much better original design as well.
i bet this new design is a lot cheaper. yet, anything is better than the totally horrible Sequoias building next to it. That needs to be demolished. We need a planning commission that looks forward. When it is garbage like the Sequoias, we are stuck with it.
There are already tall (and arguably out of place) towers, so let’s add one 50% taller still.
It’s already a windy wasteland, so let’s build a tall tower to make it windier still.
Jokes (I hope!) about BRT aside, it’s not near any real mass transit.
In short, strikes me as ridiculous to propose this here, when mid-Market trundles along at 6 or 8 stories.
They won’t be out of place with more. I can’t see any reason to not upzone from here to Fillmore around Geary. Maybe a chance for some middle class condos.
SF has a tradition (policy?) of putting towers on hills, to amplify the topography, so towers on Cathedral Hill aren’t out of place, by that standard.
I second Sierrajeff’s mid-Market location. I lived on the Wilshire Corridor in a 30 story tower when attending UCLA and loved the scale and design of all the towers along that street. Market is THE appropriate place for towers, especially mid Market.
We could use both. Geary is a logical place as well between Van Ness and Fillmore. These might have a shot to provide middle class condos
We agree on something! I love the Wilshire Corridor – though I think the curves of Wilshire there help – keeps it from being one long canyon.
Nice…build it already!
1) we’re splitting hairs over a taller tower among other towers in the immediate vicinity
2) The SOS cathedral hill website looks like a parody site – the extreme hyperbole is hilarious “Among my friends and myself the desire to leave our once cherished and adored home city is enormous. The materialistic rape by those now in charge is truly demonic. Each condo development is like a stiletto plunged into the heart of San Francisco. They must be stopped!”
Ha, old people. I can just see some guy writing that
Damn…that is worse than faux-rural suburban NIMBYs complaining about new housing near them. “It will destroy the RURAL character”. No, your 1970s split level and three car garage already did that forty years ago.
The false facade / slanted glass mechanical enclosure on the NEMA tower is bad enough, combining that unfortunate design detail with the the curved front of the Rincon Hill towers makes this not only a horrible piece of design, but an unoriginal one as well. Bring back the SOM design, or a similar solution which plays off the geometries of St. Mary’s Cathedral and the Transamerica tower and thus would have a logical place on the SF skyline.
heads at the planning commission should roll at the planning commission for allowing the mess called the NEMA.
I live in the CH area. I went to a meeting of these kooks after getting one of their IDIOTIC flyers in the mail, hoping to have a chance to speak some common sense. They made clear at the very beginning that opinions other than their own weren’t welcome. I did eat their food (which wasn’t good) but walked out. They were busing in seniors from the Sequoias. Nobody in that room other than one of the speakers was under 65.
I wanted to say GET A HOBBY, people. You live in a huge tower yourself!!
For more details on 1481 Post Street, please visit the new website: http://www.1481post.com
I think this is great, the idea of towers going down Geary to Fillmore is fantastic. I would liken that scenario to Vancouver heading to the Capilano bridge.
Instead of SOM inspiration we get this hodge-podge of mediocrity.
Yeah the old design was better, but this is pretty good looking itself. I hope it gets built. The city really needs to escape the clutches of the wealthy geriatric NIMBY overlords though. The amount of influence they have is ridiculous, given their relatively small numbers, and considering their lack of logic (all their arguments are based on their feelings and their misconceptions).
I very much support this , I would actually like to see the Theater at Japan Town removed , and replaced with a tower in the height range of 400+ feet , and would love to see the bulk of the Japan Town complex rebuilt with 2 additional towers in the 300 – 450 foot range added
I just have one question:
Can Aaron Peskin see it from his house?
LOL! awesome!
I wish they would have built this tower on Market at 10th, instead of that hideous black behemoth, NEMA which is hideous!
It seems SOM always comes up with a great design (the original design for this building, their proposal for the Transbay Centert/Salesforce Tower) and then somehow, their designs are dropped and an inferior design is selected by the developers (I know Hines had Pelli on their team and feel it was too bad they won for many reasons).
I think this project was “watered” down to make it easier for all the seniors living in The Seqouias to accept
watering down a design to people who won’t see a building to its 5th birthday seems like pretty bad policy for good urban design.
This design is too ugly to build. We as a city deserve to have fewer ugly buildings. Honestly, the architecture in this town is horrible and there is no reason to continue building on that tradition.