SOAK Rendering

SOAK’s Kickstarter campaign to fund the development of a prototype urban bathhouse and eco-spa constructed out of re-purposed shipping containers – with solar panels, a rainwater catchment and filtration system, and a graywater garden – failed when only $26,508 was pledged with a $240,000 goal.

SOAK Rendering Features

But Nell Waters and her team are pushing forward with a proposal to install a pop-up SOAK prototype on Mission Bay Commons, the linear park in the works between Mission Bay Boulevard North and South, west of Third.

Mission Bay Commons Map

The details of SOAK’s proposal for their pop-up will be presented to the Mission Bay Citizens Advisory Committee on Thursday along with the designs for Uber’s proposed Global Headquarters by SHoP and Off the Grid’s plans to park food trucks at Fourth and Mission Bay Boulevard South.

41 thoughts on “Urban Bathhouse Proposed To Pop-Up In Mission Bay”
  1. What “rainwater”?

    … and NOTHING should be installed in the Mission Bay Commons strip, it should be open parkland for general recreation, open space and views – not for private commerce and infrastructure.

    1. Agreed. What is the point of a City “Park” if it is really just a landing spot for a private business?

    2. The sites marked on the map by socketsite are currently privately controlled, fenced-off, dirt-surfaced vacant lots; not public parks.

      1. Slated in all the plans to be public park. The City has been collecting Park Fee from the adjacent property owners for the last 15 years… can we get a refund if this goes in?

    1. I’m just guessing:
      1: low-water native plants that dogs will love to crap in
      2: trip-hazard “please sue us” water feature
      3: water storage tanks
      4: “free to take” bucket and net
      5: doorway
      6: solar panel for electrical needs
      7: solar panel for water heating

  2. Shipping containers have officially jumped the shark.
    Is this a joke? Is her last name really “Waters?”

  3. Where is the vat of Purell? Perhaps UCSF can fund this as part of its new sexually transmitted diseases transmission rates from bathhouses study.

  4. Ridiculous bunch of urban/hipster crap. The whole shipping container as useful for housing or businesses is just dumbing down our urban culture even more. I’m so glad the begging , I mean funding campaign, failed.

    1. Remember a number of years ago dumpster diving was hip. No, you are a step away from being homeless and actually living in a dumpster.

      1. Or if you are an optimist, this is a dumpter you can actualy dive in. But be careful becuase it doesn’t look very deep- might hit your head but at least you will be clean. Now, how do get a job as a lifeguard here?

  5. Oh, yes! Just when I want to feel real clean I can now think of a San Francisco public bathing facility, and in shipping containers no less :/
    Oh, just aren’t I just so cool.
    This hair-brained idea deserves to wither.

  6. Bad idea.
    No rain to catch.
    It’s a construction dust bowl out there and windy sometimes.
    Nice homeless attraction.

  7. So bad an idea it’s bound to be supported soon by Campos and Kim.
    Now here’s a real “wall on the water” or is it “wall in the water”?

    1. I’m sure they are rushing to write a ballot measure to impose a moratorium on private bathrooms in the Mission until more of these are approved. It’s only going to increase the value of private showers! Don’t they understand?!

  8. Perhaps in the MacDonald’s parking lot at Haight Street? Part of their urban police drug interdiction contrition mitigation?

  9. The editor could have reused the title from yesterday’s Caltrain post. This idea is sure to piss some people off.

  10. Geez. It’s not like they’re going to cover the city with these things. It’s just one very small area. Why not give it a try and see where it goes?

  11. How about sticking this in a neighborhood that is not full of condos and apartments with pools and spas already?

    1. Actually, kind of ingenious. Might complement those “co-housing” developments being touted as affordable housing.

  12. Looking carefully at a zoom-in of the rendering this must be a Whites Only venue, all I can see are white people? Srsly though, can we not build this, thank you.

  13. I think the gays ruined the term “bathhouse” as it was originally used. There might be a few disappointed tourists if this ridiculous thing actually opens.

    1. But weren’t “straight” Romans having sex in their bathhouses long before the term “gay” was created?

      1. Homosexuality have existed throughout civilization and exists in the animal kingdom (to a small extent) as well. Sex in a public bath is a cultural thing.

        As for public baths, Gellert Public Bath in Budapest, Hungary is one of the more beautiful places that I am aware of. Japan also has nice public mineral baths.

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