San Francisco Friends School

Historic rehabilitation and adaptive re-use of the Levi Strauss manufacturing plant on Valencia Street in San Francisco created a K–8 school building. The seismic improvement and conversion involved a change of occupancy and complex life safety equivalencies negotiations with DBI and the Fire Department. The building now includes classrooms, a gymnasium, a black box theatre and a parking garage.

As the Owner’s Representative, Project Manager, and Construction Manager, Joel Roos oversaw all aspects of the project including land use entitlements, project management and construction management. A traffic and transportation analysis and related mitigation measures were paramount to the entitlement process.

The key to achieving a successful Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) was largely due to the outreach that the school and PUDC took part in, while assuring that the design and school operations did not “tip” the project into environmental impacts that required mitigation.

Status: Delivered

PUDC Role: Developer

Architect: Pfau Long Architecture

Contractor: Plant Construction

Financing: Tax-exempt bond financing through Bank of America