2012July
"San Francisco Considers Plan To Develop Tiny Micro-Apartments"
First it was New York City with its micro-apartments, and now San Francisco is jumping on board with the idea of smaller apartment sizes. This consideration comes as a response to increased rental prices, a need for more single living spaces, and a serious housing shortage.
The current minimum apartment size is 290 square feet, and the proposal in negotiation will lower that to 150 square feet plus a kitchen, bathroom, and closet – making it 220 square feet in total.
...More"Patrick Kennedy Aims for Big Splash with Small Units"
Small is coming to SoMa — apartments, that is. East Bay student housing developer Patrick Kennedy is close to installing his first San Francisco project, which will feature units measuring a compact 300 square feet. The project’s 23 units are currently moving along the assembly line at Zeta Communities’ factory in Sacramento and will be ready for occupancy in October.
“This kind of living is appealing to people who like living in cities and all the stimuli and attractions that are available,” said Kennedy, who heads the development firm Panoramic Investments. “Our residents will make a trade-off of proximity and convenience for space.”
...More"Patrick Kennedy to Unveil Micro Apartments in San Francisco"
In a crowded city like San Francisco, size matters. That’s why developer Patrick Kennedy of Panoramic Interests is building bite-size apartments in S.F.’s South of Market district.
Kennedy plans to unveil a 23-unit apartment building at 38 Harriet St. in October.
The units were designed and built in collaboration with Zeta Communities, a San Francisco-based maker of prefabricated buildings. Each 300-square-foot apartment is currently under construction at Zeta’s factory in Sacramento.
The builder will ship the units via trucks to San Francisco, where they will be assembled like building blocks
...More"SoMa Apartments to Cater to Tech Crowd"
Coming soon to San Francisco’s hot South of Market area: A “tech savvy” residential community, containing 463 rental apartments, a shared gourmet kitchen, work space areas, plus restaurants, cafes and perhaps even a hipster barbershop like they have in New York.
“We’re creating a space that mirrors the sensibilities of the community,” said Eric Tao, managing principal of San Francisco’s Avant Housing, developer of the two-building project covering 587,000 square feet at Folsom and Fifth streets.
...More"Letters to the editor, June 17: Diversity Housing"
Your front-page story on “tiny living spaces” was like a ray of hope. The charity-lottery system of providing affordable housing isn’t filling the gap in our housing stock.
We can balance income and housing needs by allowing developers to produce market-rate affordable dwellings. This is a very good way to promote diversity and social stability in the city, and hopefully in our state.
...More"Tiny Apartments in S.F. Worth a Try"
San Francisco’s lopsided housing market – sky-high rents and an invasion of young workers – has experts thinking: Why not drop the minimum size of new apartments to the equivalent of a one-car garage?
It’s an idea worth exploring and encouraging, but the results will hinge on the appeal and convenience of the finished product. Financing, the job market and even housing politics could all play a role in a helping or hurting a promising idea.
...More"Tiny Condos Not for the Small-Minded"
Small is the new big.
When Supervisor Scott Wiener proposed legislation that would allow for new construction of rental units with as little as 150 square feet of living space, there were hoots of derision.
That’s no more than a parking space, critics said.
Well that’s just silly. It is at least two parking spaces.
But the concept isn’t so far-fetched. In 2008, an innovative condo building called Cubix opened on Harrison Street, and although the hoots were just as loud – and it experienced some rocky financial times – it is now fully occupied with tenants who say they are neither dissatiSFied nor claustrophobic.
...More"Micro-Apartments Next for S.F.?"
Are itty-bitty apartments the next wave for urban dwellers in San Francisco?
The city is considering shrinking the minimum size of rental units, prompted by a demographic shift toward one-person households along with rising rents and an acute housing shortage.
“This seems like a logical, necessary response to housing in an extremely high-cost market like San Francisco,” said Tim Colen, executive director of the San Francisco Housing Action Coalition, a largely developer-backed nonprofit that is “solidly behind” cutting the size of the smallest allowable apartment by about a third.
...More"SF Supes to Vote On Micro-Apartment Proposal"
San Francisco supervisors will consider a plan that would allow developers to create so-called “micro apartments.”
...More
