Facade design for the largest new development in San Francisco comprising 18 different types of facade and the city’s first 30’ high serrated facade.

The new Flower Mart development is one of the biggest in San Francisco and will revitalize a historic area of the Soma district that hosts the old flower market. The development comprises two main buildings; the new flower market building and the block building that will include retail and office spaces. The buildings in the Soma district will feature 18 different types of facade and a 30’ high serrated storefront, the first in San Francisco.

As the facade engineer, we developed the details for the 18 different wall types including folded storefront, faceted-tilted facade, retails facade and unitized curtain wall facades. These incorporated several infills materials like glass, folded metal panel, GFRC and brick slips, unitized window walls, rainscreens and precast panels.

Seismic loads played a crucial role in the design of the different facades. Finite Element Analysis helped us to design and optimize the best facade system to guarantee high levels of resilience in case of a seismic event. To accommodate seismic movements and seismic forces, we designed the glass at each corner to bend and incorporated slip connections to allow the high seismic movements.

In addition to detailing, we worked on the finite element analysis to assess the structural behavior of complex facade system like the serrated storefront in the flower market. We also supported the architect with facade specifications and bid process to select the facade contractor.

As the time scale for the design of all 18 of the facade types was extremely tight, the project was carried out using the expertise of both our New York and San Francisco offices. Our multidisciplinary approach allowed us to achieve high level of facade design respecting deadlines and architectural intent.

Location
San Francisco, CA

Client
Kilroy Realty

Architect
Rios Clementi Hale Studios | Adamson Associates