Can a suburban community— let's not mince words: Parkmerced— that's tucked away in the corner of a city hold on to its suburban-ness? Faced with a ginormous 20-year update plan to densify and smart-growthify the postwar suburban utopia, some of Parkmerced's residents (or at least one of them), want the owner, Parkmerced Investors, to stop. The plan, drawn up by international firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, will knock down about half of the current housing stock of 3,000 units (the low-slung buildings), and put in taller buildings, ending up with a total of 8,900 units— some rental, some for sale. Eco-everything, of course, with efficiency retrofits to atone for some of those suburban sins. Here's the thing: Parkmerced is so suburban and special, so embedded within a particular suburb-loving time in our past, that it just might be historic, which— if ever designated as officially true— actually would stop the massive project in its tracks. Case pending...
· Lawns to highrises [SFBG]
· NIMBY Stirrings In The Sunset [Curbed SF]
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