950 Tennessee is designed to reflect both the industrial and residential fabric of the surrounding neighborhood.
950 Tennessee is a new 100-unit residential building located in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood. The project site spans the width of a city block and is u-shaped in plan, with open space in the form of a central courtyard. Although the building is one structure, the style and massing has been broken into two components - one residential in texture and the other more industrial, reflecting the variety in the immediate project vicinity.
The southern portion of the building is designed with an industrial aesthetic intended to reflect the precedents in the Dogpatch Historic District. This portion is clad with weathering steel colored metal panels, and features large infill windows and a sawtooth roof in keeping with the neighborhood’s warehouses and industrial structures.
The northern portion of the building, in contrast, has an architectural aesthetic intended to reflect the more residential character of the Dogpatch Historic District, especially the Pelton Cottages and other residential buildings found further south along Tennessee Street and Minnesota Street, with their repetitive verticality and narrow gaps between them. This portion is clad in white and textured charcoal panels, and has punched window openings in similar proportion to the Dogpatch’s historical housing.
The ground level on all sides is activated by dwelling units, each with its own stained wood panel door and transom window to provide a residential feel for both passers-by and those who live here.
Part of the development plan included the creation of a 30-foot wide publicly-accessible mid-block passage from Tennessee Street to Minnesota Street. This passage is located in the approximate location of the historic Kentucky Place, an alley immediately south of the site that joined Tennessee Street to Minnesota Street until 1935.
