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A 24-Hour Diner Transforms Into Needed Housing
by Robert Shurell
Do you remember the King Diner at Tenth and Mission streets? I remember the red mansard roof and the script sign over the door announcing: “King Diner, Open 24 Hours.” It was the only 24-hour diner around and I’ve always thought all-night diners were something special. The building was one story, surrounded by a parking lot that always gave me the feeling that someone was lurking in the shadows.
The architecture was appalling; I’ve already mentioned the red mansard roof, but the walls were covered in a fake stone veneer that looked more like painted plywood. Knee-high weeds grew up in the crack between the building wall and the sidewalk. It did have great picture windows that looked out over the corner, and when I went there I would always seat myself with a good view out (not just because I like watching the street, but because sitting in a sleazy diner on a seedy street corner requires that you be somewhat aware of your surroundings).
The interior was just as drab. It was lit like a restroom, with harsh, unshielded lamps burning overhead. Vitrified brick-colored tiles made for easy mopping. Hard, red phenolic molded booths were complemented by fake wood-colored plastic laminate tables. There were a few fixed bar stools with yellow tops facing the stainless steel counter. I never sat in these seats, as they faced away from the street doors and forced you to look at the cook and the kitchen.
The menu hung from the ceiling on a letterboard above the counter. On the counter itself, there were usually some donuts in a plastic case, a cash register, and a sliding door to a built-in freezer where they kept the ice cream and corn dogs. The kitchen beyond was, in contrast to the glaring seating area, dark, smoky, dim and grimy. I even remember how they wrapped the bacon cheeseburger in a piece of paper, and set it on a gigantic tray next to the french fries, always cooked fresh for you, sizzling with hot oil.
With all these details in my memory, I was shocked when I walked by the corner of Tenth and Mission streets last fall and found that the King Diner was completely gone. The site was flat, scraped and ready for something new. My initial feelings of anger were replaced by regret that I hadn’t eaten there in five years; suddenly I was dying for a milkshake and a corn dog! As I rode my bike past Tenth on Market on the way to work each day after that, I would look over at the vacant site and wonder what could possibly replace a classic like the King Diner.
All this year, I’ve watched as the new structure has been going up. They have just poured the ninth floor level and it’s going to be even bigger: 12 stories and 200,000 square feet. It is constructed of post-tensioned concrete, an interesting technique used to reduce material usage and decrease the thickness of the floor slabs. A concrete slab can be as thin as seven inches, and is compressed after curing by tensioning steel cables cast into it, effectively making it strong enough to span great distances unsupported.
This high-tech new building, built on a $54 million budget, will have 136 rental units. It will serve families earning from 15% to 50% of the annual median income in San Francisco (that’s between approximately $11,000 and $39,000 annually for a family of three, according to the Mayor’s Office of Housing). Forty-four units will be dedicated to chronically homeless families in dire need of help through strategic intervention. The full building program includes ground-floor community-serving retail spaces, a youth recreation and activity space, secured open space (gated space for resident use only), a multipurpose room, property management offices and a few parking spaces.
The building will be complimented by an adjacent 11-story high rise at Ninth and Jessie streets with 107 units of rental housing for very low-income seniors (aged 62-plus) in a 97,000-square-foot envelope. The cost for this high rise will be $35 million. The HUD Section 202 program (which provides federal capital advances and project rental assistance to private nonprofit corporations in order to develop new housing or substantially rehabilitate housing to serve low-income elderly people) will subsidize 95 of the units. The San Francisco Department of Health will subsidize the remainder. Twenty-seven of the units will be set aside for homeless seniors.
The tandem project is being developed by Mercy Housing California, a nonprofit company committed to providing housing to those who need it most. It has partnered with the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, which contributed to the project from its Citywide Tax Increment Housing fund in the form of loans, bonds and a 99-year lease on the land after they purchased it. The SFRA has invested $62 million in this combined $88-million project. Other partners are the contractor, Cahill Construction, and the architects, KMD and Kodama Diseno.
Both buildings are very modern looking and will complement each other, as they will be dressed in precast panels and curtain walls. The family housing at Tenth and Mission streets is being constructed now—the buildings are on a staggered schedule and the senior housing should be starting soon—and is shaping up nicely. The main entry faces the intersection, which is questionable feng shui but seems to work in this case, as it will open the building up to the street. The main building design elements, a curving S-shaped glass wall adjacent to a red panel and glass tower, are also concentrated on the intersection. The building mass is held consistently at 12 stories along the Tenth Street façade, lining up with the height of the atrocious M2 building across Jessie Street, while the Mission Street façade steps down quickly to meet its neighbor midblock.
No matter how much I liked the King Diner, it is hard to deny that the multigenerational community these two projects will bring to the area will be an improvement. The character a good greasy spoon brings to a street corner cannot compete with housing families in danger of homelessness, or senior citizens with nothing at all. The amenities in this area, including ready access to an abundance of public transportation, the public library just across Market Street, a Goodwill store two blocks away, and the other exceptional low-income development occurring in the area, spearheaded by the SFRA, make this project a candidate for great success.
I am pleased that the buildings are being constructed as Type I reinforced concrete. The building materials are of the highest quality, and give the buildings an opportunity to stand for at least 500 years, with the proper maintenance. I don’t think the King Diner was going to last that long. The flies would have picked it up and carried it off long before.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of SFAA or SF Apartment Magazine. Robert Shurell is a licensed architect with Stantec Architecture and can be reached at robert.shurell@stantec.com. Copyright © 2008 SF Apartment Magazine. All rights reserved.