Feature
by Robert Shurell
A dozen years ago, the Presidio of San Francisco underwent a great change. The 1,480 acres it covers changed hands, though strangely enough, not owners. This piece of land in northern San Francisco was used as a military post for 218 years, first by Spain, beginning in 1776, then Mexico and finally by the United States from 1848 through 1994. It was that year that the federal government, retaining ownership of the land, passed it on from the military to National Park Service management. Since 1998, the park has been managed jointly by the NPS and a special public-private governmental agency called the Presidio Trust.
Created by Congress in 1996, the Presidio Trust’s mission is to preserve and enhance the Presidio as an enduring resource for the American public. This mission is tempered by the congressional requirement that the park be financially self-sufficient by 2013. (The Presidio’s extensive infrastructure, 800 buildings and cultivated grounds require funding for upkeep unlike any other national park, thereby requiring a different management model.) The trust manages 80% of the land in the Presidio, including nearly all of the buildings, while the NPS manages the remaining 20% (mostly coastal areas).
To fulfill their mandate of financial self-sufficiency, the trust must use government funding—supplied in an ever-reducing amount each year—along with revenue from leased buildings to rehabilitate the existing structures on site, maintain the utilities and infrastructure, restore the open spaces and historic resources, and provide public programs. As of 2005, over 300 of approximately 500 historic military buildings had been rehabilitated. Many of the historic buildings were originally built as residential living units for either officers or enlisted personnel. The homes for officers were usually detached single-family or duplex houses that lend themselves easily to rehabilitation and continued use. The residential buildings that were used by bachelor officers or enlisted personnel are a more complex puzzle to solve, as a simple rehabilitation would lead to a hotel or single-resident occupancy use. The trust prefers individual units, each with a private entrance, bathroom and kitchen.
Building 1330
Imagine you are driving to the Golden Gate Bridge, heading north along Park Presidio Boulevard. You leave the city’s dense fabric behind at Lake Street and slip into the Presidio. The Douglas MacArthur Tunnel arrives quickly and just as quickly
you are out on the other side. Now look out the driver’s side window and you will see Kobbe Avenue, a sleepy residential terrace that pays no attention to the frantic elevated speedway you drive on. Blink and you’ll miss it. Kobbe is much better traveled at the speed of a bicycle than a car. On this terrace you’ll find the most handsome collection of residences in the Presidio: Officers’ Row. The eclectic lineup of WWI-era homes climbs the hill—affording increasingly magnificent views of the bay—and culminates with a stately brick building whose entire front façade relaxes deep behind a two-story front porch. This is old Barnard Hall (Building 1330), built in 1914 and named for John G. Barnard, chief engineer of construction of fortifications of San Francisco Harbor and Fort Point from 1853 to 1854.
Recently, the trust hired Architectural Resources Group, the San Francisco-based historic preservation firm for which I work, to study the building for reuse. Originally used as bachelor officer quarters, Building 1330 is T-shaped, with living units across the front, and support functions in the back “leg” of the T. Six officers originally lived here, two on the ground floor and four upstairs. Each apartment was outfitted with a sitting room, bedroom and large, tiled bathroom. On the ground floor, adjacent to the central main entry, were shared sitting, parlor and assembly rooms, the dimensions of which were very generous. The rear wing served as the kitchen and community dining room on the ground floor, and servants’ rooms with a shared bathroom on the second.
In the reuse scheme, the bathrooms will maintain their original purpose as well as their original fixtures (such as the pedestal sinks with attached chrome soap dishes, white “subway tile” walls and hex-tile floors), where possible. Also, the original solid maple flooring, a surprise feature covered by carpet until a field investigation, will be restored to its full luster. One concession to modernization will be made concerning “party” walls and floor/ceiling separations. The need for acoustic separation requires that one side of the wall and/or the ceiling be removed to pack the cavity with insulation and install gypsum board on resilient channels.
“The challenge was to develop the best combination and configuration of smaller, rentable units,” comments project designer Jennifer Costa, “while at the same time providing the spaciousness associated with Presidio living. It’s a delicate balance. Further, respect for the historic fabric requires that we preserve as much of the original floor plan and building shell as possible.” This task was accomplished by creating a plan with nine living units, seven one-bedroom apartments and two two-story, two bedroom “townhouses.” The one-bedroom units are 600-700 sq. ft., and the townhouses are 1,200 sq. ft. One of the one-bedroom units will be ADA accessible, while another is “adaptable,” meaning that if tenants with disabilities move in, elements of the unit can adapt to their needs. For example, blocking will be installed in the bathroom wall framing for the future installation of grab bars.
Each unit along the front of the building will have direct access to the front porch, which will be divided to allow for more privacy. The design of the separations may be problematic because it must permit seclusion, yet allow light through. Car storage provides another interesting design problem. Each tenant gets a private garage space behind the building, which means tenants will likely use the rear exits as their main entries. “The building is really set up for a front approach,” contends Costa, “and we’ve had to work hard to make the rear entry an aesthetic feature of the building.” An element of the revamped rear side of the building is a new ADA ramp, which was specially designed to complement, rather than compete with the original back porch. “The original back porch has its original hand railings,” notes Costa. “We designed the ramp with similar, though modern, railings that will complement the originals.”
Building 1330 is different from most Presidio projects. It is unique because it is multifamily, and because it is a new, expanded use for the building, rather than a single-family or duplex residence that will keep its old use after rehabilitation. The rehabilitation will require the addition of new kitchens and bathrooms, plus restoration in damaged areas of the building (the front stairs are missing, for example). But Building 1330 is an important element in the prestigious Officers’ Row neighborhood, the final sentence in a fine story that writes its way up the hill. Although the cost-of-work-versus-leased-income ratio may not be as high as the single-family homes and duplexes, there is more at stake than just the income the building will produce. The trust’s mission to preserve and enhance the Presidio as an enduring resource for the American people should prevail, thereby producing a rehabilitation of the quality that the other residences of Officers’ Row have received and setting this handsome neighborhood up for another century of enjoyment.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of SFAA or the San Francisco Apartment Magazine. Robert Shurell is a licensed architect and designer with Architectural Resources Group, a firm specializing in historic preservation throughout the western United States. Feel free to contact him with questions or comments at Robert@argsf.com. © 2006 by the San Francisco Apartment Magazine. All rights reserved.