KPF master planned the entire downtown San Francisco development, engaged in preliminary design work to secure entitlements, and is the architect of the site’s office tower, 415 Natoma. 5M SoMA is one of the first master plans in San Francisco to reconceive a suburban tech office model for an urban setting. The plan integrates the development’s variety of programs with the open space essential to the vitality of a 24/7 neighborhood.
The overall massing of 5M SoMA relates to the context of the neighboring streets, which to the north are denser and more commercial and to the south are smaller, industrial, and residential. Rather than a single homogenous group of buildings, 5M SoMA uses materiality and pattern to present a varied appearance with the functionality of a single mixed-use complex. This sense of variety breaks up the scale and relates the buildings to the surrounding, lower-rise context.
