Chorus

A residential tower reinvigorates an overlooked area of the city and expands the possibilities of urban living.

Despite its transit-rich history, San Francisco’s Market Street Hub had become a place people hurried through on their way somewhere else. As the City has focused revitalization efforts here, the challenge has become not only to provide housing, but also to engage the street level to build a lasting sense of place that invites participation in urban life.

Chorus expands the possibilities of urban living by incorporating a neighborhood cultural institution, theatre and public plaza. Multistudio, Align Real Estate, and Turner Construction collaborated to design and construct a residential tower and podium structure that considers the larger city, integrating space for City Ballet San Francisco to remain on the site and expanding the neighborhood’s cultural offerings with Chorus Hall, a new 224-seat theater. We maximized connections between the public lobby bar, theater and new public plaza designed by renowned Mexican architect Frida Escobedo with Fletcher Studio, to create an activated pedestrian realm. The design supports the city’s vision for a new pedestrian-friendly Hub, and allows a long-time cultural institution to continue contributing to the vibrancy of the greater Mid-Market/Civic Center performing arts district.

Activating the ground floor

With ground-floor retail struggling in recent years, the opportunity to house a busy cultural institution in what would have been a collection of retail spaces solved many issues. The adjoining theater provides performance space for the ballet, but also for other users, expanding the artistic possibilities within The Hub. Through other non-traditional retail spaces, including a coffee kiosk, and the public lobby bar, the ground floor of Chorus serves residents, the ballet school, and the public in a creative new way.

Choreographed amenities

We judiciously and creatively worked with zoning and planning exceptions to expand the amenity space in the building, fitting in a rooftop pool, gym and outdoor fitness, rooftop solarium, coworking space, bicycle workshop and dog run. The wide variety of amenities are woven throughout the building, becoming a vertical neighborhood to foster community.

The roof of the podium structure is dedicated to fitness, inclusive of both indoor and outdoor options. Expansive views of the city provide an urban backdrop while working out. This distinctive set of amenities—particularly the unique, Ninja Warrior-style outdoor fitness environment—have become a point of differentiation for the building among other recently-built residential towers, illustrating the creativity that often results from challenging constraints.

A contextual composition

The podium structure and tower were designed to be compositionally harmonious, inspired by the multiculturalism and diversity that enrich city life. The nine-story podium continues the scale of adjacent buildings around the site, with active spaces inhabiting all major street frontages. The 26-story tower anchors the corner with the new urban plaza, together engaging one of the largest intersections in the city and creating an exciting new public space in the heart of The Hub. The glass tower and glass fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC) podium materials help distinguish between vertical and horizontal elements and also mediate between the traditionally lower-scale buildings of the neighborhood and the larger towers either built or planned. The materials break down scale and read differently at a distance and close up, giving passersby different contextual views as their proximity to the building changes.

A transit‑oriented, zero‑commute facility

Adding co-working facilities contributes to a zero-commute facility, and the building’s location encourages public transit usage.

A new urban place

Testament to the project’s attention to the urban context, it received Planning Commission approval on its first try. The unconventional approach to a residential tower, with its porous ground floor, public plaza and major cultural institution enlivening daily activity, provides lasting value to both the client and the neighborhood. This distinctive new urban place illustrates what can happen when a building is designed with the city as its client.