San Francisco Waterfront Partners has released a new look for their plans for 8 Washington Street, a contentious bit of real estate on the Embarcadero, and it does not include tennis. The Golden Gateway Club has aligned itself with the developer and will shut down the tennis courts, replacing it with a gym/health club, indoor and outdoor pools, and the flavor of the decade, a green roof. The condo towers don't seem to have changed much, but where once there were walled-off private tennis courts there will now be a public park and playground. Jackson Street will extend to the Embarcadero once again as the Jackson Street Commons, Drumm Street will be reinvented in much the same way along the pool and playground, ending in the triangular park at Broadway. It's a complicated land swap deal- Ports owns Seawall Lot 351, currently a parking lot for their Ferry Building tenants, and the Golden Gateway club property/sliver is leased from the Revelopment Agency- a legacy of a time when people played tennis in the shadow of the Embarcadero, and Jackson Street ran through what was once a produce market.
As re-programmed by Craig Hartman at SOM and landscape architect Peter Walker, the most recent proposal has 165 units of housing planned in the height-staggered towers, which will fund 33 units of offsite BMR housing. All units will get parking spaces, plus 255 public parking spaces (in part to fulfill Ports' lease obligations across the street) and 81 bicycle spaces plus along with food and retail on the Embarcadero. Does the club think there's more money in swimming and spinning classes- the only other gym on this stretch of the Embarcadero is the YMCA. Ports is behind the project, but there is the usual field of NIMBYs arrayed against it. Meanwhile, the folks (folk?) at the opposition, Friends of Golden Gateway (FOGG) ended the year on an upbeat note, going into the holidays thanking their allies and sure of prevailing over the development? and saving the tennis courts.
· 8 Washington Street/Seawall 351 Coverage [Curbed SF]
· 8 Washington Overview [SF Waterfront Partners]
· FOGG Seasons Greetings [FOGG]
[All images via SOM/PWP Landscape Architecture/San Francisco Waterfront Partners]
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