Handel Architects

950 Tennessee is a new 108-unit residential building located in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood. The project site spans the width of a city block, and part of the development plan includes the creation of a 30-foot wide publicly-accessible mid-block passage from Tennessee Street to Minnesota Street. This passage will be located in the approximate location of the historic Kentucky Place, an alley immediately south of the site that joined Tennessee to Minnesota until 1935.

The new building will be 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 one industrial, reflecting the variety in the immediate project vicinity. This mix of styles reflects the historic significance of the Dogpatch as a mixed-use district where Shipyard workers lived in the mostly Victorian and Edwardian-era dwellings constructed between 1870 and 1910.

The southern portion of the building is designed with an industrial aesthetic intended to reflect the industrial precedents in the Dogpatch Historic District, especially the adjacent building at 970 Tennessee Street, which was constructed in 1935. Set back from this historic industrial building by the proposed mid-block passage, the new building will span the width of the parcel along the mid-block passage. The northern portion of the building, in contrast, will have 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.