{"id":42763,"date":"2025-07-21T13:17:32","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T20:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=42763"},"modified":"2025-07-21T13:17:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T20:17:33","slug":"sf-wants-upzoning-to-deliver-a-wave-of-new-homes-but-will-they-look-any-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/07\/21\/sf-wants-upzoning-to-deliver-a-wave-of-new-homes-but-will-they-look-any-good\/","title":{"rendered":"SF wants upzoning to deliver a wave of new homes \u2014 but will they look any good?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/users\/profile\/Keith_Menconi\">By Keith Menconi | Examiner staff writer<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Jul 20, 2025\u00a0Updated\u00a0Jul 20, 2025 (SFExamner.com)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com\/sfexaminer.com\/content\/tncms\/assets\/v3\/editorial\/b\/01\/b01b2abc-2988-459d-8662-c26a3ee88151\/6879a3fc6bc30.image.jpg?resize=400%2C267\" alt=\"7.18 Stanyan Park Hotel at 750 Stanyan St. next to a new apartment building at 730 Stanyan St. (copy)\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Built in 1904, the Stanyan Park Hotel, right, stands across the street from a new affordable-housing development currently under construction at 730 Stanyan St.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/users\/profile\/Craig\">Craig Lee\/The Examiner<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong>&nbsp;San Francisco\u2019s elected leaders are getting ready to review a major rezoning proposal that would allow for larger and denser housing developments across much of the north and west of The City.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>As with all housing debates in San Francisco, this one has raised a host of thorny questions, and many residents are looking for answers. To help them out, The Examiner will be&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/housing\/how-quickly-will-upzoning-lead-to-new-sf-homes\/article_b5a1b98e-72f5-4f52-9d0a-255f6245a8a6.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tackling<\/a>&nbsp;some of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/housing\/what-sf-upzoning-may-mean-for-property-values-housing-costs\/article_792d6d48-96a1-4a77-986a-85a20f02a027.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">those questions<\/a>&nbsp;in an occasional series over the coming months.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>You can read&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/housing\/answering-your-biggest-san-francisco-housing-questions\/collection_f647871e-c71e-4a15-a752-0762a9c8abcd.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">other entries in the series here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With rolling hills full of brightly colored Victorians, San Francisco is a city that is well known for its beautifully constructed homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But to hear some people tell it, it might sound as though The City\u2019s architectural heyday has long since passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even ten years ago, John King \u2014&nbsp;the San Francisco Chronicle\u2019s urban-design critic at the time \u2014 remarked in an interview that \u201ca lot of what\u2019s being built in S.F. right now really&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kqed.org\/news\/10429722\/whats-up-with-s-f-s-bad-architecture\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">feels like product<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The detractors point to a flood of new mid-rise residential buildings that have proliferated in recently built-up neighborhoods such as Mission Bay and Dogpatch. The four-to-five story buildings often share strikingly similar designs: boxy frames; bright colors; sleek, simple exteriors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For some lovers of The City\u2019s Victorian-era buildings \u2014 constructed in oblong shapes, defined by jutting turrets and bay windows, and adorned with hand-carved ornamentation \u2014 these new arrivals strike a jarring and at times unappealing contrast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, as San Francisco considers a proposal backed by Mayor Daniel Lurie to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/housing\/sf-plan-to-add-housing-density-set-to-go-before-lawmakers\/article_113bc75b-61d9-4c2c-ba55-63ac592221a5.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rezone The City\u2019s northern and western neighborhoods<\/a>, some are asking whether the loosened zoning rules will open the floodgates to a glut of modern developments that will supplant&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/housing\/planners-daunting-task-defining-what-makes-sf-homes-historic\/article_e8f44fa7-69d3-4603-beb0-96902799da44.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the historic charm of The City\u2019s older buildings<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Examiner put that question to a number of local housing experts. Some stuck up for the merits of The City\u2019s modern residential constructions, while others said they want local government to steer builders onto a different aesthetic course entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"750\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-75.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-42770\" srcset=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-75.png 750w, https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-75-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-75-150x100.png 150w, https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-75-225x150.png 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The stakes of beautiful buildings<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Richard Kurylo is among those who has&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/opinion\/openforum\/article\/san-francisco-skinny-architecture-19960340.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">railed against modern residential designs<\/a>, which he describes as \u201cdrab, soulless architecture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An urban geographer who has worked in both San Diego and San Francisco on neighborhood economic-development projects, he\u2019s been speaking out at recent meetings of The City\u2019s Planning Commission to make the case that well-designed buildings aren&#8217;t just nice because they&#8217;re pretty. Neighborhoods with high-quality architecture, he contends, are crucial for spurring the local economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cGood planning results in better design and more pedestrians and shoppers,\u201d said Kurylo, who works for The City but spoke to The Examiner in a personal capacity. \u201cPeople are drawn to the architectural qualities that are inherent in pre-World War II buildings: complexity, richness, and attention to detail.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But in a city where neighborhood opposition has scuttled many proposed housing developments over the years, for some, any complaint based on aesthetic concerns immediately smacks of not-in-my-backyard obstructionism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWho&#8217;s to say they&#8217;re not beautiful?\u201d said affordable-housing developer Sam Moss of modern homes. \u201cI&#8217;ve always wondered who&#8217;s the arbiter of that decision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Furthermore, Moss, who leads the Mission Housing Development Corporation, said that in the face of an affordability crisis such as San Francisco\u2019s, purely aesthetic concerns should carry far less weight than the more basic need to create housing developments that are affordable, livable and safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI think that the grossest, most ugly thing we could possibly do is to not build as much high-quality housing for everyone\u201d as possible, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What\u2019s changed?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However you might feel about San Francisco\u2019s more modern buildings, it\u2019s undeniable that they do look different from the Victorian, Edwardian and Spanish revival-style homes that came before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" src=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-76.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-42771\" srcset=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-76.png 640w, https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-76-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-76-150x100.png 150w, https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-76-225x150.png 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"4\" height=\"3\" src=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-69.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-42764\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The modern Four Seasons Private Residences building incorporates the historic Aronson Building in its design at 706 Mission Street in San Francisco.Craig Lee\/The Examiner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Is there a lot of outrage and or a lot of loud outrage? Nobody knows for sure, but new data makes it\u00a0clear where one key demographic stands<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>One reason for the shift in appearance is that they just don\u2019t build \u2019em like they used to \u2014 and that\u2019s because they can\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When it comes to classically constructed molding and wood-framed bay windows, \u201call of those things are custom made and handmade,\u201d said Mary Comerio, a longtime San Francisco resident and a professor of architecture at UC Berkeley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, she said, whoever is manning the workstation to create such pieces has to have \u201csome pretty serious skills to be able to do that. I don&#8217;t think there are many carpenters around that even know how anymore,\u201d making the work now prohibitively expensive for most housing projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Further constraining the building choices available to developers, San Francisco began adding layer upon layer of new regulations to its planning and building codes over the second half of the 20th century. Now, the tangle of rules saddles projects with a long list of provisions \u2014 height and setback limits, window placement, safety requirements such as sprinkler installations among many others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Add in other constraints, like spiraling construction costs \u2014 not to mention the laws of physics that dictate what is materially possible to build \u2014 and Comerio said \u201cthere are only so many floor plans and so many sizes and sites that make sense, if you want to have anything bigger than a three or four-unit building.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a result, a whole lot of residential buildings start looking really similar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A firmer hand in building design?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>While San Francisco does have a lengthy design-review process for new residential buildings, critics say it has no clear mechanism to weed out bad architectural designs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere&#8217;s a whole sort of checklist that people go after,\u201d said Patrick Carney, an architect who serves on The City\u2019s Arts Commission. Nevertheless, he said, \u201crarely does somebody say, \u2018oh, it&#8217;s just ugly!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But maybe residents should get that chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kurylo notes that other cities make aesthetic considerations a central part of their planning procedures. In particular, he pointed to Vienna as one possible role model for San Francisco. Austria\u2019s capital has institutionalized a public process that allows residents to play a role in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/commonedge.org\/can-quality-solve-l-a-s-housing-crisis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">selecting the designs for many of the city\u2019s housing projects<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe result is developments that enhance neighborhoods,\u201d&nbsp;wrote one architectural nonprofit reviewing the Vienna model. \u201cResidents see the new homes as a community asset, and possibly a future home for their children, or even themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kurylo argues that if San Francisco were to adopt similar measures, the force of public pressure would push developers away from bland building-design choices driven by bottom-line financial considerations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But adding another layer of oversight atop San Francisco\u2019s building-entitlement process would cut hard against the grain of the current political moment. Right now, The City\u2019s most prominent elected leaders are working to loosen regulations and cut cumbersome red tape that they say has held back housing development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And Moss said that, already, the costs imposed by The City\u2019s current regulations are actually contributing to the stunted design choices exhibited by some buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are forcing developers to spend a ton of money on subjective, soft-cost design review \u2014 review of the design, review of the review of the review of the design,\u201d he said. \u201cHow many lawyers did you get to review that? All of that chunks away from funds that could otherwise be spent on a beautiful facade.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-77.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-42772\" srcset=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-77.png 640w, https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-77-200x300.png 200w, https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-77-100x150.png 100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"4\" height=\"3\" src=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-73.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-42768\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Canyon, a residential building completed in 2023, is one of several recently constructed housing projects in the up-and-coming Mission Rock neighborhood.Craig Lee\/The Examiner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Will people warm to new buildings?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>On matters of aesthetic taste, Comerio takes the long-term view. She noted that both the Transamerica Pyramid and \u2014 decades later \u2014 the housing developments in Mission Bay caught considerable flak when they were first constructed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But now, the Transamerica Pyramid is a beloved landmark, and Mission Bay is \u201cfull of restaurants and cafes and trees, and it looks pretty good when you go for a walk around there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While new constructions often strike many as \u201cbad\u201d and \u201cscary,\u201d she said, eventually, \u201cI just think people soften up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Editor\u2019s note:&nbsp;San Francisco\u2019s elected leaders are getting ready to review a major rezoning proposal that would allow for larger and denser housing developments across much of the north and west of The City. As with all housing debates in San Francisco, this one has raised a host of thorny questions,&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/07\/21\/sf-wants-upzoning-to-deliver-a-wave-of-new-homes-but-will-they-look-any-good\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42763"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42763"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42773,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42763\/revisions\/42773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}