NNN Brokers USA – San Francisco Commercial Real Estate Brokers: "The Scoop"

[Happy St. Patrick's Day, people — "disarmed the actions," via Curbed SF Flickr photog potential past]

· Garage-building restrictions: now veto-proof? [SF Examiner]
· Seattle and the revival of dead alleys [Crosscut]
· Acura’s PR people “befuddled” by bike culture [Snitch]
· The 3D printer that can hatch entire buildings [Inhabitat]
· Sneak peek: Shanghai’s World Expo 2010 [Arch Daily]

When we first spotted LindenHayes about a year and a half ago, the mixed-use building seemed to have mushroomed up out of nowhere. Sales are apparently going just as briskly: before the building’s even really finished (they’re still wrapping up the lobby and interior courtyard) half of Hayes Valley’s newest condo building has already gone into contract. The 32-unit building now has 17 left, some mixture of 1-beds and 2-beds (all the 3-bedrooms are gone) ranging between $529K and $965K. [Inside SF RE, previously]

Click the image above to view the full photogallery.

The “NY style loft” at 57A Rodgers St isn’t on the MLS yet, but it’s been making the Craigslist rounds for a few days now. The top-floor condo’s a 1-bed, 1-bath with 811 square feet, part of an old “ivy-covered” SoMa building that was converted to residential use in 2000. The property’s page says the building was adapted by L.A.-based architect Whitney Sander, though we couldn’t find any other references to his having worked on it. One noticeable departure from your run-of-the-mill adapted brick building: the walls have been painted over in bright white, though we’re not exactly sure that’s a selling point. Asking price is $495,000.
· Loft Bedroom in Brick Conversion Building in Vibrant SOMA [Craigslist]

So early consensus on SFMOMA’s napkin shortlist of potential architects is that it’s impressive and good for San Francisco, if maybe a bit predictable. The New York-based critic who saw the list as a “bad sign,” however, has a couple more words to say on the matter. Noting that New York’s MoMA seemed to lean cutting edge for their own expansion before they fell back to safer choices, she writes of SFMOMA: “By choosing a more cohesive set of architects, the museum might have indicated what they want the expansion to do for them, both in terms of galleries and in terms of urbanism. This list makes me think they have no idea, and I don’t think that is a position of strength for a client.” [A Bit Late, previously]

[Via Flickr/Donnaphoto]

A state formula called the Regional Housing Needs Allocation was the basis for a court striking down Pleasanton’s housing cap. Cities have to take on their fair share of housing growth as determined by the formula, which has been doling out housing needs numbers to cities since 1980, based on where jobs are. Pleasanton voters, however, instituted a ceiling on its housing units at 29,000 — the city’s current numbers are already above 27,000, and the city’s planning for an additional 45,000 jobs in the next 15 years, meaning essentially that new workers in the city could work there, but they probably aren’t welcome to live there. According to the Chron, if the court decision sticks, suburbs and small cities (or other cities who may feel like housing caps are a good idea) could be forced to reconsider density. Says the lawyer for the plaintiffs: “The law doesn’t say everything has to be urban, but we’re going beyond a point where communities can be enclaves.”
· Alameda land-use ruling could reshape state [SFGate]

Click the image above to view the full photogallery.

A two-story, 2002 house that our blog neighbor SocketSite first noticed almost three years ago is back on the market today. Designed by architect Jim Jennings, who’s responsible for other notable space- and materials-obsessed properties all over SoMa, this particular Corten-steel-plated house has 3 beds, 4 baths, 4,280 square feet, and last sold in 2007 for $3.2 million, according to SocketSite. The house has “moveable pocket walls” that can be used to create a “4th bedroom or playroom,” plus a guest cottage. The holes drilled into the rusted front facade allow outside light patterns onto interior walls — “inverting the rough into the elegant, the public into the private,” wrote Arch Record in 2002 (PDF). Art-Sites San Francisco called it “a radical expression of industrial minimalism and an object of wonder.” The other radical expression? Its asking price of $3,600,000.
· 464 Tehama [Website]
· 464 Tehama [Jim Jennings Architecture]

Following a building inspector’s visit to the Richmond’s Alexandria Theater last night, it was declared that the building was officially — homeless squatters notwithstanding — vacant. That opens the door for the city to begin levying the anti-blight fee on the building owners, a fee said recently to be going up to $6,885 a year. Which means the owners, who are apparently based out of the country, have more motivation to get their asses in gear on the renovation, if indeed they ever get the city’s sternly worded letter. [Richmond SF, previously]

The closed-door sessions that are producing SFMOMA’s architect shortlist for expansion are flapping in the wind a bit — yesterday, following Curbed’s Monday reveal of six of the eight purported firms on the list, the SF Business Times put their own ear to the ground and came up with more names in the running: Enrique Norten of TEN Arquitectos (he’s also working on the Mexican Museum at 706 Mission St), Swiss architect and Pritzker Prize winner Peter Zumthor, and Foster + Partners (recently kicked to the curb from the U.N. Plaza federal building rehab). What’s more, rather than a list of eight, up to “a dozen design firms” are being discussed by SFMOMA’s board members, under the advisement of a director of research and planning at the California College of Arts. The three new names join the six dropped on Monday: David Adjaye, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Steven Holl, OMA, Snøhetta, and Renzo Piano. While SFMOMA is “communicating with various architects, who obviously are talking to other folks,” museum PR wrote in an email yesterday that they “can’t confirm nor deny anything at this point.”

But assuming the names are legit, there’s enough meat here to see what SFMOMA’s going for. Having opted for an invitational competition, rather than throwing the doors wide open to design submissions, the museum has hand-picked for themselves a list of superstar names certain to bring in glory and big headlines (it’s working so far!). Unfortunately for local firms, that also means SFMOMA’s expansion won’t be their shot at the big time — one architect called the revelation “very disappointing.”

Meanwhile, Christopher Hawthorne, the architecture critic down at the LA Times, hasn’t exactly been blown away by the names that have surfaced so far. In a tweet yesterday afternoon, he wrote: “SFMOMA expansion shortlist … being called roster of starchitects. I’d say usual suspects circa 5-10 yrs ago.” Elaborating on the Culture Monster blog, he added: “My quick reaction to the group of firms is that it is heavy on talent and museum experience but also predictable.” Former Dwell editor Allison Arieff agreed. And in the sourest tweet on it yet, one NYC-based architecture critic wrote, “I think they don’t know what they want, a bad sign.” ‘Course, with nothing confirmed or denied, SFMOMA can always come out with a more crowd-pleasing shortlist at a later date, and make good with jilted architect and critic alike before day’s end.

P.S. We hope John King comes out to play too.

· SFMOMA architects in play [SF Business Times]
· Familiar list of architects for SFMOMA expansion [Culture Monster]
· Architect Shortlist for SFMOMA’s Expansion Goes for Heavy Hitters [Curbed SF]
· SFMOMA Lands $250 Mil for New Wing, Says They’re Halfway There [Curbed SF]

As we wrote last month: We see good bones and a relatively unrenovated kitchen and baths (which we actually prefer when buying) inside the Henry Doelger designed home at 1862 15th Avenue. And yes, it’s an apple to be…

["Yellow house, blue sky," via Curbed SF Flickr photog Octoferret]

· Plastic-bottle boat sets sale to Sydney [CNET]
· Gehry doesn’t think his Vegas building’s over the top [ABC News]
· “Overexposed” but still supercool: Seed Cathedral [BLDGBLOG]
· Absinthe is taking over Citizen Cake space [Eater SF]
· Gavin rubs in New York’s eco-cab failure [City Insider]