Location
San Francisco
Completion
May 2008
Schedule
20 months
Contract
$16 million
Architect
HKIT Architects
Owner
St. Anthony Foundation
Project Summary
Clients and staff appreciate the LEED Gold certified Foundation building, which provides free medical services in an atmosphere of abundant fresh air and natural daylight. For nearly sixty years, the St. Anthony Foundation has been providing very low-income people in the working-class neighborhood of San Francisco’s Tenderloin with free job training, hot meals and medical services. In the Social Services Building, the Foundation is able to provide these services while maximizing clients’ well-being, and minimizing its own impact on the environment.
The 47,169 SF, steel-frame building at 150 Golden Gate Ave. houses temporary food service and dining facilities with a seating capacity of 200, a free medical/dental clinic, social services, vocational training (including classrooms and computer labs), and administrative and support space. The 5-story structure is the first green social services building in San Francisco. Prior to construction of the new building, the site’s previous building demolition was particularly challenging because of its proximity to three adjacent buildings.
The project is LEED® Gold Certified. Some sustainable building elements include:
Natural light
A “cool roof”
Energy-efficient lighting and an evaporative cooling system
Regionally harvested and manufactured wood doors
Low-flow water fixtures that reduce water usage by 37 percent
Walls painted with warmly colored and low-VOC paints
Abundant fresh air. The improved air quality in the building is important for neighborhood clients and patients, for whom asthma is a common illness.