510 Townsend As Envisioned And Pre-Leased To Stripe
April 30, 2015
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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.
rendering by steelblue
Comments from Plugged-In Readers
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let’s change the name of Townsend St. to Fakebrickfacade Street.
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?
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.
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.
according to Joys of Yiddish by Leo Rosten, one definition is “an apprentice schlemiel.”
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.
Great looking building well-suited to its location and intended use. No wonder it already has a prospective tenant.
looks like it belongs in menlo park or Paramus NJ, or Cleveland Ohio. ICK
so why exactly does Menlo Park, or Paramus or Cleveland make you want to say ICK?
Isn’t that what 6 year olds say?
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).
Really a shame you have to so kow-tow to the size-queens in order to praise such a praise-worthy property.
I thought I was objecting to them, not kow-towing to them, but whatever.
It does look like it belongs in Redwood City, but I’ll take it over what’s there now.
Yeah, because Redwood City is teeming with well-designed 7-story office buildings.
UPDATE: Hearing To Approve New Tech HQ Slated For Next Month