SOM, Woods Bagot part of mega multifamily development planned for San Francisco's west side

To kick off a decade-long redevelopment project that will add 5,679 new housing units in San Francisco, developers Parkmerced Investors LLC unveiled designs for the first five multifamily structures that will begin construction in the city’s southwest side in February 2016.

"Thank goodness we’re finally talking about housing on the west side of town and in great quantities," Michael Theriault, Secretary of the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council, told the San Francisco Business Times. "This won't be the cookie-cutter approach from the original Parkmerced."

Currently, the site is filled with vacant lots. The first five buildings are expected to add about 1,000 units to the metro area’s housing stock in an area that has seen little new residential construction despite the recent real estate boom.

Here are the designs released by San Francisco’s Planning Commission:

21 & 25 Chumasero Drive, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

1188 & 1198 Junipero Serra Blvd., designed by Kwan Henmi

300 Arballo Drive, designed by LMS Architects

455 Serrano Drive & 850 Gonzalez Drive, designed by Woods Bagot

99 Vidal Drive, designed by Fourgeron Architecture

One of the hardest decisions multifamily developers and their design teams have to make is what mix of amenities they’re going to put into each project. A lot of squiggly factors go into that decision: the type of community, the geographic market, local recreation preferences, climate/weather conditions, physical parameters, and of course the budget. The permutations are mind-boggling.

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