Located on the Embarcadero and located in the Northeast Waterfront Historic District and adjacent to the historic Telegraph Hill neighborhood, Broadway Cove is a 146,000-square-foot multi-building complex, composed of two elements: 850 Front Street features 125 affordable family units ranging from studio to 3-bedroom units; and 735 Davis Street includes 53 senior units with studio and 1-bedroom configurations. 

Taking cues from the historic fabric of the district, the buildings are designed to maximize the facade perimeter through a series of courtyards and a midblock passage that serve both the complex and the neighborhood. The configuration provides access to natural light and views for all the units. Outwardly, the buildings riff on the historic built fabric of the neighborhood: red brick warehouses built in the 19th and early 20th centuries featuring smaller windows and stature; and “frame and infill” buildings from the early 20th century typified by larger concrete warehouses with larger windows and stature. Ground floor spaces provides areas for community gathering, commercial space, a YMCA childcare center, live-work flats. 

To support the Bay Area’s dwindling critical natural habitat, the project’s stormwater management requirements were taken as an opportunity to provide local fauna a small point of respite and refuge. At the building’s upper rooftop, a series of planting areas were implemented to provide a small, but fruitful, native habitat. The gardens were inspired by the beautiful and endangered, Mission blue butterfly, a species that relies solely on three varieties of lupine. Using lupine albifrons as the basis for the planting design, native species such as eriogonum fasciculatum, mimulus aurantiacus, and salvia clevelandii were added, as well as additional plantings to provide year-round soil coverage. It is hoped that this habitat will support a host of native species of birds, hummingbirds, bees, and at least eighteen species of native moths and butterflies. 

LMSA Design Team 
William Leddy 
Aaron Thornton 
Mario Russo 
Ian Ashcraft-Williams 
Cecily Ng 
Jen Winnett 
John J Son 
Howard Russell 
Jackie Liu 

Project Team 
Architect: Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects 
General Contractor: Cahill Contractors 
Co-Developers: BRIDGE Housing Corporation and The John Stewart Company 
Civil: Luk & Associates 
Landscape: ACLA 
Structural: KPFF 
MEP: PAE 
Furniture: Florena Nernteanu 
Lighting: ALD 
Waterproofing: Marx Okubo 
Acoustical: CSDA 
LV: E Design C 
EBM: Highline 
Dry Utilities: Urban Design Consultant 
Photography 
Bruce Damonte