Some of you might remember the old Public Health Service Hospital building as a dilapidated and graffiti strewn eyesore in the otherwise beautiful Presidio Park. Urban Explorers have documented the creepy hallways and vestibules, and there are numerous websites that detail the bizarre morgue, operating rooms, and autopsy room. But you won’t find old x-ray machines or graffiti there anymore. The abandoned hospital has now officially re-opened as a luxury national park apartment complex, dubbed the “Presidio Landmark,” which we toured Wednesday.
The Presidio Trust teamed up with Forest City (also known for the Bayside Village project by the Ferry Building) to rehabilitate the Presidio hospital located near the 15th Avenue entrance off Lake Street. In a leap towards the Trust’s goal of attaining self-sufficiency by 2013, the Forest City architecture firm say they renovated the building with historic preservation and sustainable design in mind. Forest City projects that occupants of these high-end units will be a community of active people who appreciate the park’s immediate access and young families/couples who are looking for the “best of nature and the city.”
Originally built in 1932, the Public Health Service Hospital is the largest historic structure in the Presidio. Architects adapted the spacious six floors and 220,000 sq. feet into 154 residences with 37 different floorplans. Amenities include courtyards with firepits, a yoga room, a “New York style” doorman, hot-tubs, and a la carte services such as personal chefs and personal trainers. The gorgeous units with high ceilings, hardwood-floors, vintage marble details, and stainless steel-appliances also offer views of the surrounding parkland and city skyline. To ease traffic woes, The Presidio’s shuttle bus will be rerouted to reach the apartments.
The Presidio Landmark is also the first historic building that has been turned into residential units to achieve LEED Gold status by the U.S. Green Building Council. Forest City says they utilized green building techniques including the reuse of original building materials, reusing rooftop runoff after filtration for landscaping, and designing spaces with considerable natural light sources. They say their adaptive re-use efforts has the equivalent reduction in green house gas emissions as taking 154 cars off the road annually.
Since the Presido Landmark is situated on a National Park, the residences may only be rented, and not bought. And living in the Presidio doesn’t come without a considerable price-tag. Junior 1 bedrooms (400-600 sq. feet) start at $2,125, 1 bedrooms start at $2,875, and two bedrooms start at $4,325. That hasn’t stopped over 300 people from signing up for apartment tours, and several deposits have already been taken. With the first wave of residents moving in by the end of July, Craig Middleton of the Presidio Trust urges that the units “won’t last long.”
The next large project for the Trust and Forest City partnership will be the newly constructed Belles Street Townhomes, adjacent to the Presidio Landmark on the historic Belles Street Green. For this new construction, Forest City is striving for the highest level of sustainability for the townhomes – a LEED Platinum certification.
