SocketSite™

I miss the primer already.

The bad news: yeah, its not exactly an homage Stanley Saitowitz. The good news: its market rate so the people who live there will not be an homage to John Berkowitz.

The building is a great addition to the neighborhood, but:

Why does everything built in the Mission need to be in garish colors? Is this Cabo?

The super cheap metal balcony screens look like they would blow offf in the wind.

There are no spaces for trees on the Mission Street side of the building, in contrast to the design.

Just what this town needs, another Walgreens!

And while it might be garish I think this is better than a Saitowitz; his stuff is beyond ugly and boring.

IMO the Wallgreens is very welcome because the others in the Mission are in super sketchy locations, e.g., Papa Potrero murder central.

There are more Walgreen's within 1/2 mile to this location than there are MUNI stops (there are 3 Walgreen's all within walking distance: 1 is 1 block away at Valencia and Cesar Chavez, 1 is 3 blocks away at 23rd and Mission, and 1 is 5- 6 blocks away at Mission and 30th. This will be the 4th Walgreen's in the area. The aforementioned Potrero Walgreen's is a whopping 9 blocks away, looks like there's room for about 3 more Walgreen's in between here and there).

No Walgreens at Val/CC. The others are correct though. And IMO, the more the merrier.

Papa Potrero murder central is right!

I have seen the sketchiest junkies there. I think it's the first panhandling spot after they are discharged from E.R.

1.16:1 parking ratio on the most heavily traveled Muni corridor in the city.

Good thing there's so much room on the surrounding streets for all those cars :-/

The nearby Walgreens mentioned is just south of Cesar Chavez on Valencia, inside the medical office building at St. Luke's.

Anybody have the scoop on current pricing?

Yeah, some greenery, even just a few well-placed trees, would be a really, really welcome addition to this part of the neighborhood. Sigh.

There will be greenery-- trees and shrubs-- going in on the median as part of the Cesar Chavez greening project. I too remember plans for sidewalk greenery-- does anyone know if that is happening?

Based on the number of people who have contacted me via my blog post on Bartlett, I'd say the building is very popular. I've had multiple showings there and the property is coming along well. There's a big difference between what you can get for your money here vs elsewhere in the city. 2BRs in the $500,000s? Previously unheard of in SF, exterior colors aside.

I think this building turned out pretty nicely. The colors are sort of awful, and I wonder who is going to sit on their balcony over Cesar Chavez st, but that aside I think it's a nice addition to the neighborhood. They are going to green the area - the project hasn't started yet. They're also going to redo St Luke's, so over the next few years the area should improve even more.

Re the parking, a lot of people who live in the area commute so it makes a lot of sense. You can't take muni and bart everywhere in the Bay Area...

Yippee! This building is so very much better than the abandoned lot full of day workers that it's been for as long as I can remember. These colors aren't so garish; they sort of break up the hugeness of the structure IMO.

Dan - the greening of CC is scheduled to begin this year, a two year process. There's a post here on Socketsite just a few pages back, and also you can check out missionlocal.com.

Thanks Socketsite for posting more on the Mission lately.

[Editor's Note: Cesar Chavez Reconfiguration Update (And Some Objections).]

The green median they are building in the middle of CesarC was a deal made by the developer & Planning Dept: The cost for this improvement on/near the site is in lieu of paying the silly impact fees that Planning (unjustifiably) levied on the project.

There should be more of this - especially in the Market/Octavia area which now has $10/sf impact fees. Owners should be allowed to improve the streescape in lieu of paying the fees. At least they will get immediate value for their $ instead of it going into the black hole of City coffers.

I know the green median is going in as part of the Cesar Chavez reconfiguration, as per the Socketsite post-- but I recall that there was also a plan for sidewalk trees on this intersection, paid for by the developer. Will sidewalk trees be going in too, or just trees in the median?

Note the many sidewalk trees in these depictions:
http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2007/06/3400_cesar_chavez_approved_but_opposed_in_the_mission.html

Dan shows what I was talking about-- the plans show palm trees on Mission street but there are no cut outs in the new sidewalks for them. Can the developer back out on planting trees??

There are cut outs on the CC side where presumably there will be trees.

More architectural malpractice. There oughta be a law. Or maybe the fiends should just be forced to live in the crappy buildings they design.

I like the architecture of this building a lot more than the nearby Bernal Gateway, or 700 Valencia. OK, maybe 700 Valencia is a low bar.

Hate the colors, though. Wish they just had left the gray primer.

Often the tree cut outs are done later, as they often require a separate dpw permit (so they can keep track of tree planting.) I'm almost certain there will be sidewalk trees there.

The sidewalk space there is a joke. It is a huge intersection, pedestrian unfriendly and once there are more pedestrians it will be a very crowded street.

Agreed! Forget the sidewalk trees.

How about some plain old sidewalk???
Sheesh, that building is right up to the street.

Sidewalks could make this neighborhood so much more livable and alive. Tons of pedestrians with sidewalk cafes and eating and mingling.

Sidewalks will be widened, plus bulb-outs, a median, and only 2 lanes of car traffic in each direction.
http://missionlocal.org/2010/01/redesigning-a-new-cesar-chavez/

I don't expect a lot of pedestrians and sidewalk cafes, though, as the street is mostly residential.