CFAH

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While not yet approved for development but working its way through Planning, Alexandria Real Estate Equities has pre-leased its proposed 299,160-square-foot building to rise up to seven stories at 510 Townsend Street to payments startup Stripe.

Assuming all goes as both sides plan, Stripe will be able to make the move by the end of 2017.  And yes, the building has been designed with de rigueur open floor plans and an “eatery” inside.

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Comments from Plugged-In Readers

  1. Posted by Shmendrick

    let’s change the name of Townsend St. to Fakebrickfacade Street.

    • Posted by frog

      My grandmother used to call her brother a schmendrick. It’s the nicest thing she said about anyone. Is it possible to express something positive in Yiddish?

    • Posted by Futurist

      It’s not “fake” brick at all, but real brick cast into precast concrete panels; a technical way to insert the tradition of brick architecture into a modern building, while acknowledging our earthquake history.

      Good project, clean modern design. Build it.

      • Posted by The Milkshake of Despair

        It is fake. Brick has been a structural element in construction for centuries all the way back to Roman times. Only since the 1970s or so did faux brick veneer tiles start appearing. Though they’re made from the same material as real bricks, this veneer is not structural. It looks fake because subtle misalignments, expansion joints, and other departures from the traditional mason’s craft give it away.

        I like a good brick building and there are beautiful examples of real brick buildings out there. But these fake brick buildings are a different story. The structures are fine but they’re not fooling many people with the brick veneer. Instead they should use a material more appropriate for a place with significant seismic activity.

        FWIW, I like the overall look of this building. Just use a different surface material for the lower left grid.

  2. Posted by Shmendrick

    according to Joys of Yiddish by Leo Rosten, one definition is “an apprentice schlemiel.”

  3. Posted by Invented

    Nice suburban office park height. What’s the point of a two-level height top floor?

    I grew up being called a schmendrick (affectionately) but definitely wasn’t called a schlemiel.

  4. Posted by Orland

    Great looking building well-suited to its location and intended use. No wonder it already has a prospective tenant.

  5. Posted by MDG399

    looks like it belongs in menlo park or Paramus NJ, or Cleveland Ohio. ICK

    • Posted by Futurist

      so why exactly does Menlo Park, or Paramus or Cleveland make you want to say ICK?

      Isn’t that what 6 year olds say?

  6. Posted by Sierrajeff

    It’s a perfectly fine building, and a helluva lot better than what’s there now (isn’t that the SFMTA parking lot?). Seven stories is perfectly fine for this location, in fact I think at 7 stories it’ll be almost twice the height of anything nearby (the Bluxome condos and the Adobe buildings, east and west respectively, are only ~4 stories).

    • Posted by Orland

      Really a shame you have to so kow-tow to the size-queens in order to praise such a praise-worthy property.

      • Posted by Sierrajeff

        I thought I was objecting to them, not kow-towing to them, but whatever.

  7. Posted by jsimms3

    It does look like it belongs in Redwood City, but I’ll take it over what’s there now.

    • Posted by Toby Snozzwanger

      Yeah, because Redwood City is teeming with well-designed 7-story office buildings.

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