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Madrone Construction – April 2011

April 25, 2011 by Matt Fuller, GRI 1 Comment

This morning I was out snapping a few more Easter Egg Homes that readers tipped me off to over the weekend. While I was out and about, I decided to head over to Mission Bay and snap some pictures of the Madrone under development by Bosa. I didn’t have the big camera with me, so these are taken with the iPhone 4, some with HDR, and in a few of them you can see the artifacts where the images were overlaid on each other. My apologies. Too much caffeine this morning, I guess! I also stitched together one panorama picture, the juxtaposition of old, new, empty, and under construction is one of the things about Mission Bay right now that really captivates me.

The building was a very active construction site with about five cement trucks lined up waiting to deliver their cargos, which were actively being pumped (injected?) into place.

I’ll try and remember to go back in a few months (hopefully on a sunny day) and snap some more construction photos, so you can get a sense of the speed at which the Madrone is coming together. Mission Bay is a fascinating neighborhood, it reminds me of the outline of a term paper… you can see all the major themes that will one day be present, but most of the actual build out has yet to occur. And as for how the residents on the west side of The Radiance are enjoying the construction, one can only assume that they are among the few who aren’t so thrilled that active development has ramped back up. But hey, at least when the Madrone is done they’ll be looking at a real building instead of a work-in-progress construction site.

I don’t know how Madrone will be priced [update, they are sold out. Learn more about Madrone resales], but it will be interesting to see how resales at The Radiance are impacted by the new competition on the block.

Pricing and floorplans have yet to be announced, but if you’d like us to provide you with this information – or any other about the Madrone – just leave your information below:

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Only in SF: Stairways of San Francisco

March 16, 2011 by Matt Fuller, GRI Leave a Comment

San Francisco is a city known for our hills, so an appropriate corollary might be “San Francisco, the city of Stairs.”

Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, unless you happen to be training for a marathon or other long distance event and are looking for some intense calorie-burning workout spots. Over the weekend, Carl Nolte wrote a great column at sfgate about the stairways of San Francisco. His column focuses on Adah Bakalinsky, who he describes as the Poet Laureate of San Francisco’s stairway streets. One of my favorite pieces from the article is below:

Walking is her passion. “I’ve always walked,” she said. “Now I walk with children and get them to notice things.”

Her favorite activity, she said, is “exploring something new I didn’t see before.”

Adah is 87 now, with thousands of street steps on her resume. She lives on the eighth floor of an apartment building and walks up the stairs most days. But not all. “Sometimes,” she said cheerily, “I take the elevator.”

Serendipity is her favorite word, finding something unexpected. I know what she means. Posted on the outside of a house at the top of the narrow Montcalm Street stairway the other afternoon was a poem to a child as yet unborn; a new life at the top of the steps.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/12/MNSN1I8MAR.DTL#ixzz1GnQpnDD4

The stairways of San Francisco are sprinkled all over the city, although according to the article Bernal Heights has the most. On my many outings in the city, I’ve stumbled across a few of these delightful stairway treats and they always bring a smile to my eye. They feel to me like an overlooked treasure that time has forgotten about, never modernizing them with an escalator, elevator or some other modern time and effort saving amenity. It is a wonderful “only in San Francisco” treat that you should be sure to partake of, particularly on a warm and sunny San Francisco day.

According to NabeWise your family should live…

February 25, 2011 by Matt Fuller, GRI 2 Comments

Happy Friday everyone! Nabewise recently sent out an email with their rankings for neighborhoods in San Francisco that are best for families. The votes come from locals, but I’m still fairly surprised with the results. If you ask me what neighborhood is best for families, I’d tell you that whatever neighborhood you will be the happiest in will be the right place for you. Some buyers want a little yard and the proverbial white picket fence, while others want to be able to walk to plenty of playgrounds, stores, and public transit.

The nabewise family rankings, to me at least, really seem to reflect the suburban story of child rearing – a single family house with a private yard, a garage that you drive into and out of, and dependence on a car as your primary means of transport. And it seems to me that if this is your vision, then perhaps the suburbs are where you should buy a house?

Coming in first in the nabewise rankings is the Saint Francis Wood neighborhood, a neighborhood known for its large and expensive homes – the median price in 2010 for St. Francis Wood was $1,909,000 with a median size of over 2,400 square feet. Coming in behind St. Francis Wood was a tie between Sea Cliff and Monterey Heights – neighborhoods that again are known for large single family homes. And for being expensive! Sea Cliff had a 2010 median home price of $2,540,000 and a median square footage of over 2,600.

Where do mere mortals with children live? Or must you be a hedge fund manager to afford children in San Francisco? Wait, wait… don’t answer that. Diamond Heights comes in a three way tie for third place with Laguna Honda and Balboa Terrace. Diamond Heights has a smattering of mainly 1960’s vintage single family homes (think Eichler), and also a large concentration of condominiums in large complexes. Given its reputation for wind and fog during the summer, I am surprised to see it rank so high. With a 2010 median home price of $520,000, Diamond Heights is by far the most affordable neighborhood of those ranked so far. (caveat: the large quantity of studios and 1BR condos in Diamond Heights pulls the median price down, don’t be tricked into thinking you’ll pick up a single-family in the neighborhood for that price).

So there you have it… the most family friendly neighborhoods according to NabeWise. Do you agree? Disagree? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Bernal Heights Winfield Street Slides

November 18, 2010 by Matt Fuller, GRI Leave a Comment

The Winfield Street slides of Bernal Heights were recently featured in the New York Times.Winfield street is a great little street on the northwest side of Bernal Heights that runs for several blocks from Coso to Cortland. I have had several clients live on or near Winfield street who would only consider moving within a 4 or 5 block radius, so strong was their love for the neighborhood and their neighbors in the area. If you want to live within walking distance to a BART stop, it is also one of the best parts of the neighborhood to be in.

The slides are located near the Esmeralda corridor on the map above, and I find it pretty hilarious to think of politicians like former Mayor Willie Brown or Senator Diane Feinstein sliding down them, although I can completely picture city supervisor Tom Ammiano (who has also done stand-up comedy) whooping it up on his way down the slides.

As I read the article, it sounded very much like a true Bernal story to me, in particular the level of neighborhood activism, as well as the diverse and colorful characters (the article mentions a circus co-founder, community activity, and sexologist) that either built or fought to keep the slides open when the city wanted to tear them down.

While you are in the neighborhood, I can also recommend Emmy’s spaghetti shack if you get hungry and need a filling bite to eat. So what are you waiting for? Find your kids (or a neighbors, or just yourself) and head on over to Bernal Heights to enjoy the great Winfield slides. While they might just look like two slides, at the end of the day the embody a lot of truths about San Francisco, from our love of fun to our tightly-knit neighborhood communities, and our love-hate relationship with city hall and government.

Madrone Construction – April 2011

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Only in SF: Stairways of San Francisco

According to NabeWise your family should live…

Bernal Heights Winfield Street Slides

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