Parkmerced is a neighborhood in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, 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 List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, designed by architects Leonard Schultze and

Thomas Dolliver Church Thomas Dolliver Church (April 27, 1902 – August 30, 1978) was a 20th century landscape architect based in California.Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

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 t ...

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 Neighborhood planning is a form of urban planning through which professional Urban planner, urban planners and communities seek to shape new and existing neighborhoods. It can denote the process of creating a physical neighborhood plan, for example ...

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 b ...

(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 Lake Merced ( es, Laguna de Merced) is a freshwater lake in the southwest corner of San Francisco, in the U.S. state of California. It is surrounded by three golf courses (the private Olympic Club and San Francisco Golf Club, and the public TPC Har ...

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. Aerial view of five Parkmerced apartment buildings

Aerial view of five Parkmerced apartment buildings

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

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 ...

, 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 ...

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 Thomas Dolliver Church (April 27, 1902 – August 30, 1978) was a 20th century landscape architect based in California.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

. 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.

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