San Francisco has a nice history of unorthodox living spaces, from the flower-child crash pads in the Haight to, well, pretty much any unoccupied doorway on Market Street. In yesterday's piece on Group Residences, With an Industrial Twist, the Wall Street Journal examines the current incarnation of legally-gray living situations: self-converted factories and warehouses in SoMa and the Mission which started showing up after a live-work ordinance was passed in the 70s and blew up in the heady days of the dotcom 90s. Even though these spaces are technically illegal these now (and are rarely 100% up to code anyway), they tend to attract artists and other members of the creative class which results in some cozy and eclectic interiors - more like curated Etsy.com than the Ligne Roset of ready-to-own, developer-built conversions.
Of course, the thought of having nine roommates probably doesn't appeal to everyone, but who needs a gym in your building when you've got a hand-built indoor jungle gym? And lest we forget, there are always opportunities to give this sort of thing a trial run.
· Group Residences, With an Industrial Twist [WSJ]
· Give Your Live/Work Fantasies a Trial Run for 40 Bucks a Night [CurbedSF]
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