Parkmerced is a neighborhood in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, designed by architects
Leonard Schultze and
Thomas Dolliver Church in the early 1940s. Parkmerced is the second-largest single-owner neighborhood of apartment blocks west of the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...
after
Park La Brea
Park La Brea (Spanish: ''La Brea''—"The tar", after the nearby La Brea Tar Pits) is a sprawling apartment community in the Miracle Mile District of Los Angeles, California. With 4,255 units located in eighteen 13-story towers and thirty-one ...
in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
. It was a
planned neighborhood of high-rise apartment towers and low-rise garden apartments in southwestern San Francisco for middle-income tenants.
Parkmerced contains 3,221 residences (after sale of five blocks to
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different ...
(SFSU)) and over 9,000 residents, and is one of four remaining privately owned large-scale garden apartment complexes in the United States.
The complex is located south of SFSU, west of
19th Avenue, and east of
Lake Merced
, image =Lake Merced at SFSU.jpg
, caption =
, location = San Francisco, California
, coords =
, type = Reservoir
, inflow = Spring
, outflow =
, catchment =
, basi ...
and the
Harding Park Golf Club
TPC Harding Park, formerly Harding Park Golf Club and commonly known as Harding Park, is a municipal golf course on the West Coast of the United States, located in western San Francisco, California. It is owned by the city and county of
It is ...
. The far western boundary of the neighborhood extends to Lake Merced Boulevard, and the neighborhood is popular with students and faculty at San Francisco State University because of its proximity.
In October 2005, the property was sold to a joint venture between Stellar Management and
Rockpoint Group from a JP Morgan Chase and Carmel Partners joint venture entity, for approximately $687,000,000.
Design and history
The apartment towers were designed by Leonard Schultze and Associates, the post-War successor firm to
Schultze and Weaver Schultze & Weaver was an architecture firm established in New York City in 1921. The partners were Leonard Schultze and S. Fullerton Weaver.
History
Leonard B. Schultze was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 5, 1877. He was educated at the Cit ...
, in partnership with prominent landscape architect Thomas Dolliver Church. The development was built by the
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, wi ...
, after their success with the
Parkchester
Parkchester is a planned community and neighborhood originally developed by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and located in the central Bronx, New York City. The immediate surrounding area also takes its name from the complex. Its boundari ...
development in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. Development started in the 1939, but was slowed due to
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. The first tenants moved into the Font Boulevard buildings in early 1944. The development was completed in the early 1950s and was a first home to many military families returning from the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
. Metropolitan Life has built similar apartment blocks in other large cities, including
Park La Brea
Park La Brea (Spanish: ''La Brea''—"The tar", after the nearby La Brea Tar Pits) is a sprawling apartment community in the Miracle Mile District of Los Angeles, California. With 4,255 units located in eighteen 13-story towers and thirty-one ...
in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
,
Parkfairfax
Parkfairfax is a neighborhood in Alexandria, Virginia, United States, located in the northwestern part of the city near the boundary with Arlington County. Nearby thoroughfares are Interstate 395 (Shirley Highway), State Route 402 (Quaker Lane), ...
in Virginia, and
Riverton Houses
The Riverton Houses is a large (originally 1,232 unit) residential development in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City.
Ownership
The project was proposed by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in 1944, and largely served an African American p ...
,
Parkchester
Parkchester is a planned community and neighborhood originally developed by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and located in the central Bronx, New York City. The immediate surrounding area also takes its name from the complex. Its boundari ...
, and
Stuyvesant Town—Peter Cooper Village Stuyvesant may refer to:
People
* Peter Stuyvesant (1592–1672), the last governor of New Netherland
* Peter Gerard Stuyvesant (1778–1847), lawyer, landowner and philanthropist.
* Rutherfurd Stuyvesant (1843–1909), socialite and land developer ...
in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
to name a few.
Parkmerced’s unusual pie-shaped blocks were designed by its architect,
Leonard Schultze, and shares many features with his Park La Brea design. Schultze worked closely with landscape architect
Thomas Dolliver Church, who often collaborated with cutting-edge, Modern architects, to refine the plan for Parkmerced. Church developed a unifying concept for the landscaping of each individually designed and graded garden courtyard, the different street types, open spaces such as Robert Pender Park in Juan Bautista Circle
edicated May 3, 2009 the Meadow and the recreation area, aided by office intern
Robert Royston
Robert N. Royston (1918 – September 19, 2008) was one of America's most distinguished landscape architects, based in the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. His design work and university teaching in the years followi ...
.
[
Metlife owned and carefully maintained the property until early 1970s, when it sold it to ]Leona Helmsley
Leona Roberts Helmsley (July 4, 1920 – August 20, 2007) was an American businesswoman. Her flamboyant personality and reputation for tyrannical behavior earned her the nickname Queen of Mean.
After allegations of non-payment were made by co ...
and the property began to deteriorate.[ There were a succession of owners and management companies beginning in the late 1990s. The commercial areas of the development were sold off to investors, and other parts sold to the ]California State University
The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a public university system in California. With 23 campuses and eight off-campus centers enrolling 485,550 students with 55,909 faculty and staff, CSU is the largest four-year public univers ...
system for San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different ...
.[ As of 2008, 116 of the original are owned and maintained by a single investor, who purchased the property for $687 million and has committed $110 million in upgrades.][ During the early 2000s (decade) the property was marketed as ''The Villas Parkmerced,'' however, as of 2009, signage and advertisements have returned to the original ''Parkmerced'' name.
]
Transportation
Bus service through Parkmerced primarily is provided by the San Francisco Municipal Railway
The San Francisco Municipal Railway (SF Muni or Muni), is the public transit system for the City and County of San Francisco. It operates a system of bus routes (including trolleybuses), the Muni Metro light rail system, three historic cable ...
57 Parkmerced route. Additionally, the 18, 28, 28R and 29 bus routes, as well as the Muni Metro
Muni Metro is a light rail system serving San Francisco, California, United States. Operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), a part of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), Muni Metro served an average of 157 ...
M Ocean View
The M Ocean View is a Muni Metro light rail line in San Francisco. It originated as one of San Francisco's streetcar lines in the early 20th century.
Route description
The line runs from Embarcadero station in the Financial District to Geneva ...
light-rail line, operate along nearby 19th Avenue.
Ongoing construction and development plans
Parkmerced is in the middle of reconstruction. Current projects include replacing old elevators, remodeling entrances to the towers, applying wooden window frames and miscellaneous detailing to the garden townhomes, modifying landscaping, providing new mailbox units, as well as painting the outsides of all the buildings through 2009. Parkmerced acquired their own Saturday morning Farmer's Market, which takes place on the western meadow of the neighborhood.
Along with aesthetic changes being made to the public spaces in the neighborhood, vacant garden and tower apartments are also seeing heavy renovations. These include new stainless steel appliances, granite marble counter tops, laminate flooring, and wooden cabinets. An emphasis by the development team is on the sustainability.
In 2010, the owners and managers of the various parts of Parkmerced proposed a major redevelopment
Redevelopment is any new construction on a site that has pre-existing uses. It represents a process of land development uses to revitalize the physical, economic and social fabric of urban space.
Description
Variations on redevelopment include: ...
, which would involve phased demolition of the deteriorating garden apartments in favor of higher density replacements, and reconfiguring some streets. In May 2011, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 6-5 to approve this redevelopment plan, including the replacement of virtually all of the low-rise garden apartment units with new mid-rise structures. In addition, the plan calls for preserving the rent-controlled status of tenants who are relocated, and involves construction of several hundred new units, some of which will be rentals, while others will be made available for sale. Plans also calls for retail, grocery store, performance center, and the re-routing of the M Oceanview metro line into Parkmerced.
The updated plan for Parkmerced is developed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel A. Owings, Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer Jo ...
.
Criticism
The complex was the subject of significant controversy over the policies of a previous owner regarding rent control and deceptive pricing. Apartments were alleged to have been offered at low prices because of a significant discount offered at lease signing. Upon expiration of the initial lease, rents could be raised by the maximum percentage allowed under San Francisco rent control laws, but calculating from the initial, not discounted, rent, leading in some cases to rental increases of 28%. The complex was sued in a class action lawsuit that was settled out of court. The current owners Parkmerced Investors, LLC, were not sued over this issue.
See also
* MetLife
MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, wi ...
* Cooperative Village
267px, Hillman Housing buildings on Grand Street as seen from the East River towers. Amalgamated Dwellings is seen between the second and the third tower
Cooperative Village is a community of housing cooperatives on the Lower East Side of Ma ...
* Co-op City
Co-op City (short for Cooperative City) is a cooperative housing development located in the northeast section of the borough of the Bronx in New York City. It is bounded by Interstate 95 to the southwest, west, and north and the Hutchinson River ...
* Mitchell Lama
Mitchell may refer to:
People
*Mitchell (surname)
*Mitchell (given name)
Places Australia
* Mitchell, Australian Capital Territory, a light-industrial estate
* Mitchell, New South Wales, a suburb of Bathurst
* Mitchell, Northern Territory ...
* Parkchester, Bronx
Parkchester is a planned community and neighborhood originally developed by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and located in the central The Bronx, Bronx, New York City. The immediate surrounding area also takes its name from the complex. I ...
* Parkfairfax, Virginia
Parkfairfax is a neighborhood in Alexandria, Virginia, United States, located in the northwestern part of the city near the boundary with Arlington County. Nearby thoroughfares are Interstate 395 (Shirley Highway), State Route 402 (Quaker Lane), ...
* Park La Brea, Los Angeles, California
Park La Brea (Spanish language, Spanish: ''La Brea''—"The tar", after the nearby La Brea Tar Pits) is a sprawling apartment community in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile District of Los Angeles, California. With 4,255 un ...
* Penn South
Penn South, officially known as Mutual Redevelopment Houses and formerly Penn Station South, is a limited-equity
on the ...
* Riverton Houses
The Riverton Houses is a large (originally 1,232 unit) residential development in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City.
Ownership
The project was proposed by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in 1944, and largely served an African American p ...
* Rochdale Village, Queens
Rochdale Village (pronounced ) is a housing cooperative and neighborhood in the southeastern corner of the New York City borough of Queens. Located in Community District 12, Rochdale Village is grouped as part of Greater Jamaica, corresponding t ...
* Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village
Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village, sometimes shortened to StuyTown, is a large post–World War II private residential development on the east side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. The complex consists of 110 red brick apartment b ...
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
* Steve Ginsburg (March 24, 2006)
Residential sale: Stonestown and the Villas Parkmerced
''San Francisco Business Times''
* J.K. Dineen (July 27, 2007)
''San Francisco Business Times''
* J.K. Dineen (December 21, 2007
''San Francisco Business Times''
* John King (January 15, 2008
I just want to say one word to you: sustainability
''SFGate.com''
* James Temple (January 21, 2008
Grand Vision for S.F.’s Parkmerced
''San Francisco Business Times''
External links
The Parkmerced official website
The Parkmerced development official website
Parkmerced's SF/Bay Area Podcast featuring bands from around the area
The Parkmerced Residents' Organization (The PRO) website
Historical overview of Parkmerced
from OutsideLands.org
Parkmerced Vision Plan Project Page
SOM.com
{{authority control
Neighborhoods in San Francisco
Planned communities in California