2101 Lombard Street Site

Rebuilt in 2007 but having occupied the southwest corner of Lombard and Fillmore for over forty years, plans to demolish the freestanding KFC/Taco Bell building at 2101 Lombard Street are in the works.

As proposed, a five-story building with nine (9) two-bedroom condos over 3,000 square feet of ground floor retail space and an underground garage for 12 cars will rise up to 40-feet in height across the site, with 8-foot ceilings on the residential floors.

2101 Lombard Street Rendering

A rooftop deck and a patio over the garage entrance off Fillmore would serve as open space for the residents.

2101 Lombard Street Elevation

While not historic, the KFC was deemed “a fixture within the Marina District neighborhood” and “a traditional dining spot for local residents and for local business patrons as well as tourists,” with a “menu and service that the patrons have come to expect,” when the application to rebuild the original Kentucky Fried Chicken on the site was approved at the end of 2005.

We’ll keep you posted and plugged-in as the new plans progress.

33 thoughts on “A Fast Food Fixture’s Days Are Numbered”
    1. This is a four story building with a roof deck. The Chelsea Motor Inn, across the street, is also four stories. Cannot imagine who would want to live over Lombard Street.

  1. This has to stop. If we keep razing our cheap joints for a quick gut plug traditional dining spots then San Francisco will lose every last remnant of its suburban charm.

    1. Often the same people who don’t like new housing developments in their neighborhoods also don’t like new chain eateries in their neighborhoods: Divisadero is a good example of that.

  2. I thought places on Lombard were encouraged (if not required) to mimic a 1950s / googie style. It would certainly be great if they did…

  3. Stop this monstrosity! The very essence of San Francisco is being destroyed! Preserve the neighborhood. Think of the shadows!

  4. taco bell and KFC are hardly the healthy choice….of course i am (hopefully) preaching to the choir? Now pass the secret sauce.

  5. this “taco-hell” is not “duck” or a “decorative box”…..and it has no valid reason to be in the rich tapestry of SF fabric…BOOM!

    Every architect pushes the limit here, so we can be a “kind and gentile” to the neighbors to drop a floor, recede some mass, and give affordable housing….It is all a chess game.

    1. From a Planning perspective, it’s technically a five-story building, but that includes the underground garage as reported above and is why we included the actual building height along with both a rendering and elevation for the development as proposed.

  6. The Presidio Tunnel couple with this big glass box, will surely improve the district.

    Ignoring public transit to a public park (1915 Pan American Exhibition line extension of the F-Line to the Presidio) was the first public trust error.

    AHBP – and the push to densify without addressing infrastructure (aka Transit) is the second error

    Allowing an architect to push such images, and elevations devoid of anything architecturally thought through, including materials and proportion, means you can leave the KFC and hope that something better comes along…..

  7. By the way there’s another one out on Taraval that is near the SFPL and denotes nothing and is on an existing train line. That should go too, but hopefully with better architectural style…. and composition…..

    1. I feel like there was a preliminary project proposal submitted a few years back to do just that—or perhaps at Duboce & Valencia.

  8. first they came for the gas stations, then the biodiesel sources, …. eventually we will be at the mercy of PG&E and the sun and the wind and the waves.

  9. Are these double-branded fast food places found in other places or are they unique to SF? I remember one on Polk that had fish and chips, tempura and donuts: one stop for all your fried food needs.

    1. There are definitely other double-branded “restaurants” around CA. My favorite, tho’ not technically double-branded, is a chain called Mr. Chau’s Chinese Fast Food. There was one near us that started out with just Chinese food, then added coffee drinks, then a bakery. They used to advertise “Any 3 items, only $5.99!” We used to try to make up the worst possible sounding combinations, such as “I’ll have the sweet and sour pork, a double mocha, and a bear claw, please.”

  10. love the quality of the pavement in that intersection (Filmore & Lombard), major streets, no?
    must be historical asphalt

  11. I’ve lived in the neighborhood for the better part of 20 years, and I’ve been to this place maybe half a dozen times. I’ve walked by it maybe a thousand times, but eat there? Yuck. It won’t be missed.

    Anybody that’s spent any time in the Marina knows that there are plenty of pizza and burger joints within a short walk of this spot. It’s not like it’s a food desert, or anything.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *