Heritage restoration creates a community buzz

Project: Building 12

Award: Adaptive Reuse - Big, Silver, 2023

Location: San Francisco, United States

Architect: Perkins & Will

Client: Brookfield Properties

Set next to San Francisco Bay, this project transforms a dilapidated and potentially dangerous historic building into a high-performing and resilient new space that celebrates the past and future of manufacturing and creates a new community heart for the surrounding neighbourhood.

An important piece of San Francisco’s industrial history, Building 12 is listed as a contributor to the Union Iron Works Historic District. This rehabilitation creates a diverse and dynamic space, including a vibrant and welcoming new market hall with maker’s studios, offices and community gathering space. The design honours the time-worn tactility of the built-up steel structure and patinated siding while providing new interventions that complement these historic elements. 

Design highlights

The new elements - the red entry portals with full-height accordion doors, the floating mezzanine, the grand red central stair and the catwalks that connect the new second level that flanks the market hall - all work to invite visitors to engage with the historic structure and with one another from many different vantage points.

Photo credit: Bruce Damonte