MIRA
Location
San Francisco, CA
Status
Completed 2020
Client
Tishman Speyer
Type
Residential
Size
441,000 sf / 400 ft / 392 units
Sustainability
LEED Gold Certified
Tags
MIRA is an urban residential development in the heart of San Francisco. Just blocks from the Bay Bridge, Embarcadero, and Rincon Park, the 400-foot-tall tower creates a welcoming new community in the evolving Transbay district and accommodates a wide range of units, with 40 percent designated below market rate.
The design responds to the need for dense housing in San Francisco and offers new models of sustainability, all while reinterpreting the city’s architectural traditions. It evolves the classic bay window, a familiar feature of San Francisco’s early houses, reimagining it in a high-rise context. Twisting incrementally over the height of the tower, the bays offer ample views, natural light throughout the day, and fresh air, and also inform the building’s distinctive form and texture—the result of special attention to the building’s energy performance and how it is experienced. Extending the habitable spaces within and offering platforms from which to view the city at all angles, the bays make every residence a corner unit.
A sophisticated curtain wall facade system allows the bays to be attached to a repeatable structural slab from inside the building, reducing the need for a tower crane on site and limiting energy consumption and neighborhood impact during construction. The bays allow for a high-performance facade that is 51 percent opaque without inhibiting nearly 180-degree-views in every unit. The high-performance facade, along with an innovative VRF cooling system, allows the building to exceed ambitious California Title 24 energy standards. This, along with a state-of-the-art graywater harvesting system, green roofs, and high-efficiency fixtures, awarded the project LEED Gold certification.
Project Team
Perry Architects Inc., associate architect
Barcelon Jang Architecture, associate architect
Magnusson Klemencic Associates, structural engineer
Bello & Associates, associate structural engineer
Urban Design Consulting Engineers, civil engineer
INTERSTICE Architects, landscape architect
Thornton Tomasetti, LEED / sustainability consultant
Papadimos Group, acoustic engineer
Lendlease, general contractor
PritchardPeck Lighting, lighting designer
Heintges & Associates, façade consultant
Permasteelisa, façade fabrication and installation
Rollo & Ridley, Inc., geotechnical engineer
C.S. Caulkins Co. Inc., façade access consultant
Zachary Nathan Architect, accessibility consultant
Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, waterproofing engineer
The Fire Consultants, fire consultant
Watry Design, Inc., parking consultant
Awards
Winner, Real Estate Deals of the Year Award, San Francisco Business Times, 2021
Award of Excellence, Best Tall Building 100-199 meters, CTBUH Awards, 2021
Award of Excellence, Best Tall Residential or Hotel Building, CTBUH Awards, 2021
Finalist; Housing Category, ArchDaily Building of the Year, 2021
Honorable Mention; Residential – Multiunit Category, The Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design Awards, 2020
Finalist; Cities Category, Fast Company Innovation by Design Awards, 2020
Jury Award, Residential – Unbuilt Multi-Unit Housing Category, Architizer A+ Awards, 2020
Related
Fast Company Names Studio Gang Second Most Innovative Company in Architecture for 2021
“When it began working on the elegantly twisting MIRA residential tower in downtown San Francisco, Studio Gang saw an opportunity to add more than just density to the city center. The firm proposed adding 100 extra feet to the project, and using some of the additional space for much-needed affordable housing. City officials unanimously agreed. The recently completed 400-foot high-rise now has 44 more housing units that will remain affordable in perpetuity.”
San Francisco Business Times — "Mira high-rise gives S.F. skyline new lesson in geometry"
MIRA has been named a winner for the Real Estate Deal of the Year awards by San Francisco Business Times. “Awards have stacked up for the 392-unit condominium tower since it welcomed its first residents in 2020. And with good reason. Not only does the development at the corner of Spear and Folsom streets near the Embarcadero command attention, it has 40% of its units reserved for people earning less than 80% to 120% of the area median income.”
Architectural Digest — "Studio Gang Completes a New Twisting Tower in San Francisco"
“Rising 400 feet above the rapidly developing neighborhood between SoMa and the Embarcadero, Mira dazzles with a twisting curtain-wall façade—something of a technical masterpiece.”
Studio Gang Wins Four 2020 Architizer A+ Awards
Three projects designed by Studio Gang have won four 2020 Architizer A+ Awards, which recognize the best architecture, spaces, and products from across the globe.
Dezeen — "Studio Gang Completes Twisting Mira Tower in San Francisco"
“The twisted and curved windows that form the exterior of Mira are intended to be a reinterpretation of the city’s bay windows. Inside, they offer views of San Francisco Bay and the Bay Bridge that connects to Oakland.”
San Francisco Chronicle — "Billowing New Tower Spruces Up S.F. Skyline"
“From the Bay Bridge or the Embarcadero, the 39-story Mira at the corner of Folsom and Spear streets is a flowing stack of tightly wound white metal bays, frozen in motion.”
The Architect's Newspaper — "Studio Gang's MIRA Tower twists with alternating window bays"
“Studio Gang turned towards the architectural vernacular of the San Francisco-area for the overall form and massing of the tower and townhomes, reinterpreting classical bay windows into a contemporary gesture.”
