May 23, 2016

Mithun wins top AIA award for low income housing

Photo by Bruce Damonte [enlarge]

Mithun’s John Ellis said the city, developer and architects worked to show how good affordable housing can be.

A 150-unit low-income apartment project designed by Mithun|Solomon for Fourth and Channel streets in San Francisco won a 2016 Housing Award from the American Institute of Architects.

Kennerly Architecture and Planning was the associate design architect and Full Circle Architecture was the associate architect on the project, which is called 1180 4th Street.

The AIA recognized projects in the family custom housing, multifamily housing and special housing categories. The $75.5 million San Francisco project won in the multifamily category.

Mithun|Solomon is the San Francisco office of Seattle-based Mithun.

Non-profit Mercy Housing California developed and owns 1180 4th Street, which is three stories at its shortest point and five at its tallest.

Mithun|Solomon said the project marks a gateway to the burgeoning Mission Bay neighborhood and is an anchor to its main pedestrian spine and retail corridor. It is in the heart of a job-rich part of the region, adjacent to transportation, retail and parkland.

John Ellis, a partner with the firm, said the city, developer and architects worked to make the project on the high-profile site show how good affordable housing can be.

That involved good choices of materials and of design elements that are not only decorative, but sustainable, such as the perforated metal sunshades, he said.

“So often low-income housing has been made to look poor,” Ellis said, when it can look as good as market-rate apartments. “We didn't want people to say that's low-income housing. We wanted them to say that's a nice looking building.”

He said 1180 4th Street was designed to mesh with the fabric of the community.

It has 10,000 square feet of restaurants and retail, a multi-level courtyard, two small in-home daycares, community gardens and common spaces, and 49 parking spaces. A community room also serves the larger neighborhood.

The idea, said Ellis, was to create a community of people rather than just housing them.

A total of 50 units in the building are for formerly homeless people, and rent for 30 percent of their income. The remainder are for people who make up to 50 percent of the area median income. A one bedroom rents for about $1,038, a two-bedroom for $1,246 and a three-bedroom for $1,439.

Mercy Housing California has a 75-year ground lease with the city and county of San Francisco for the 1.4-acre site. Jennifer Dolin, vice president of operations for Mercy, said it pays a base rent, but if the project earns more than its expenses in any particular year, it pays more.

In 1998, San Francisco adopted a redevelopment plan for Mission Bay that calls for one-third of the housing in the 303-acre neighborhood to be affordable. Dolin said that as part of the plan, transfer tax proceeds go to an affordable housing pool when a parcel is sold in Mission Bay.

She said financing for 1180 4th Street came from the city, state and tax credit equity from Bank of America.

The project's green elements include operable windows and wall-vents; low-energy scavenger fans; solar hot water; no or low VOC products; environmentally friendly building materials; Energy Star appliances; and construction waste recycling.

Resource-efficient fixtures, plantings and irrigation help manage water use. The building's irrigation and water closets are plumbed separately from the domestic water and connected to the city's future recycled water system. Stormwater is filtered prior to release into the city's stormwater system.

The project team includes Ajmani & Pamidi, MEP engineer; Urban Design Consulting Engineers, civil engineer; Tipping Mar and Associates and Bello & Associates, structural engineers; James E. Roberts-Obayashi Corp., general contractor; Design AVEnues, LEED consultant; Mei Wu Acoustics, acoustical engineer; Gale Associates, waterproofing consultant; GLS Landscape Architecture; and Horton Lees Brogden Lighting Design.