San Francisco Beautiful has joined the San Francisco Prize to develop a design competition for housing along the newly developed Octavia Boulevard. This is the fourth competition for the San Francisco Prize; the Federal Building Philip Burton Plaza, Union Square and Harvey Milk Plaza in the Castro all received international attention when hundreds competed to take home top honors.
Conceived as a way to promote good urban design, the San Francisco Prize seeks to inspire designers not to just be problem solvers but to offer up new ideas in the public arena. The intent is to get people to really look at their physical environment and think about what can be improved or what alternatives can be developed.
Competition Announcement
Fifteen years after the Loma Prieta earthquake devastated parts of San Francisco, an amazing silver lining has emerged in the City’s Hayes Valley Neighborhood. The earthquake-damaged Central Freeway, a double-deck structure that once cut a swath through this neighborhood, was demolished. Left behind are twenty-two parcels that can be developed, some of which line a brand new, landscaped European-style boulevard being built to replace the freeway. In addition to providing the opportunity to build almost 1000 new housing units and vibrant retail space in a densely populated historical neighborhood in the center of San Francisco, the project offers an exceptional opportunity to achieve excellence and innovation in urban infill architectural design that will over time establish the boulevard as a San Francisco destination.
The San Francisco Prize is conducting an architectural design competition for six irregular parcels that front the new boulevard. In addition to San Francisco Beautiful, sponsors of this competition include the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, San Francisco Planning and Urban Research, the American Institute of Architects-San Francisco Chapter, California College of the Arts, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and neighborhood representatives. The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency will develop some of the parcels while others will be sold to private developers. The purpose of the competition is to generate creative housing ideas for these and other sites that were formerly part of the freeway off-ramp. Winning designs will split $40,000 in cash awards and subsequently be exhibited and published. While construction of the winning designs is not guaranteed, the competition sponsors will encourage developers to team up with the designers who submit entries that can bring architectural distinction to the boulevard. The competition is open to all architects, urban designers, planners, engineers, landscape architects, educators, students and others interested in housing and development issues. Multi-disciplinary teams are encouraged.
The one-stage competition began on March 1st. On March 19th, a briefing was held at City Hall followed by a site tour of the Octavia Boulevard parcels. Design submissions are due June 1st followed by a public exhibit of all submissions. In mid-June, a jury of urban housing architects, urban designers, housing developers and representatives of the San Francisco Prize sponsors will select the winning designs.
A Competition Kit is posted on the competition website at www.sfprize.org. It includes the competition objectives, procedural rules, architectural program(s), site information and submission requirements; list of Competition Jurors; and registration and schedule details. A registration fee of $100 will be due at the time of design submission. For questions, contact Bill Liskamm, FAIA, Competition Advisor at info@sfprize.org.