The scope of the rehabilitation included extensive exterior work, such as repairs to the original windows and reconstruction of the main entry and ground-floor storefronts that had been modified. On the interior, the grand second floor lobby was reconnected with the main entry and the missing balustrade of the twin lobby stairs from the second to third floor also was reconstructed. The auditorium was rehabilitated with only minor changes.
In addition to exterior repairs, the rehabilitation project included a full seismic upgrade and complete reroofing. The mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire alarm, telephone and data infrastructure also were replaced. The clinic earned LEED Gold for Commercial Interiors, and the entire project, which uses solar-thermal domestic hot water, beats California’s stringent energy code by 11 percent.
Significant Spaces
The project retained all the highly significant historic spaces, including the 3-story Men’s Gym. Most of the first floor, heavily altered in the 1950s and later, has been converted into the DPH clinic. Although DPH would have loved to keep the pool for its potential therapeutic value, the funding was simply not available. The basement space, which housed the pool, has been converted to a resident meeting room. The pool excavation is preserved under a removable infill floor plate and the character-defining wall tile with a Vitruvian scroll pattern was retained and replicated at the deck level where the original had to be removed for structural work.
The 2-story, skylit lobby, 2-story auditorium and the Men’s Gym occupy at least 30 percent of the floor area of the building—a large amount given the project’s mission of providing affordable housing to people who have had none. But maintaining these and other rehabilitated historic spaces convey to residents the social purpose the building has always had. These spaces also are used and valued by residents and give them a sense that their home is a place enjoyed and appreciated by generations of San Franciscans. Both programmatically and physically, the project has retained the most important aspects of the building’s fabric, program and community role, ensuring that this historical resource will continue to convey the associations that tie it to San Francisco’s past.
Project Financing
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 made the project possible, providing more than $50 million in tax-credit financing in the face of the investor community’s unwillingness to finance the project. However, this financing was intended for affordable housing units. Given the commitment to historic preservation, maximizing housing units also required imagination. The majority of the spaces on the second through eighth floors, including the original hotel rooms, which were only 7-feet wide and lacked private bathrooms, were reconfigured into studio apartments. The basic circulation scheme was retained, including a portion of the original corridor with its finishes and doors. When the handball courts on the rear of the eighth floor and the Boys’ Gym on the fifth floor were demolished, 18 units of new housing were built. One hundred twelve tiny rooms have been replaced by 172 livable studios.
Kelly Cullen Community is not only beautiful, it also provides vital services. The new housing provides homes for chronically homeless people coming from the streets of San Francisco. Among them are 50 tenants who come from DPH’s list of high users of emergency room services. City and DPH referrals keep the building entirely full. The ground-floor clinic is the Tenderloin’s largest DPH clinic, serving 25,000 visitors annually.
The dedicated TNDC staff works tirelessly to support community, from movie nights in the auditorium to coffee and donuts in the atrium. Kelly Cullen Community’s name underscores the desire to create a community not an institution. As Don Falk, executive director of TNDC, reports, “You walk in and it’s just a nice place”. Ultimately, Kelly Cullen Community promotes holistic wellbeing for San Francisco’s most vulnerable while reducing public spending on hospitalizations.
Funders of Kelly Cullen Community include:
- City and county of San Francisco, Mayor’s Office of Housing, acquisition/construction/permanent loans with funding from HOME, CDBG and Hotel Tax Fund
- City and county of San Francisco, Department of Public Health, construction and services grants with funding from the California Mental Health Services Act of 2004 and General Fund
- California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, construction/permanent loan with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
- California Housing Finance Agency, construction/permanent loan with funding from the California Mental Health Services Act of 2004
- PNC Bank, historic tax credit equity investor
- Citi Community Capital, construction loan
- Silicon Valley Bank, construction/permanent loan with funding from the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco Affordable Housing Program
- Corporation for Supportive Housing, services grant with funding from the Corporation for National Service
- U.S. Bank, acquisition loan
Materials
Exterior
Aluminum Storefronts: Arcadia Inc.
Roof System: FiberTite
Studio Apartments
Floors: Nora Plan Classic from Nora
Ceilings, Doors, Trim at Doors and Windows: Dunn Edwards
Cabinets: Lanz Cabinet
Blinds: Faber from Hunter Douglas
Furnishings: Multiplicity Design
Clinic
Furnishings: Dina C. Design Studio
Residential Corridors
Floors: Marmoleum from Forbo
Base: TS Series from Burke
Walls, Ceilings and Trim at Doors: Dunn Edwards
Public Restrooms
Floor, Base and Walls: Daltile
Blinds: Faber from Hunter Douglas
Partitions: Bobrick
Retrofit Team
At the grand opening of the project, the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corp. presented more than 180 thank-you certificates to individuals who were instrumental in developing, designing and building this project. Following is an abbreviated list:
Executive Architect: Gelfand Partners Architects, San Francisco
Lisa Gelfand, FAIA, LEED AP, principal in charge
Chris Duncan, project manager
Ariane Fehrenkamp, job captain
Historic Architect: Frederic Knapp Architect, San Francisco
Frederic Knapp
Ruchira Nageswaran
Structural Engineer: Tennebaum-Manheim Engineers, San Francisco
Daniel Manheim
Nancy Tennebaum
MEP Engineer: Salas O’Brien Engineers Inc., Oakland, Calif.
Joshua Heth, mechanical engineer
John Chinn, mechanical engineer
Jeffry Gosal, electrical engineer
Energy Design: Bright Green Strategies, Berkeley, Calif.
Sharon Block
General Contractor: Cahill Contractors Inc., San Francisco
Chuck Palley, principal
Blair Allison, project manager
Guy Estes, estimator
Matt Dennig, project engineer
Mark Graeven, project superintendent
Wood-replica Millwork: Balliet Brothers Inc., South San Francisco
Storefront Installer: Valiant Glass, San Francisco
Roofing Contractor: Alcal Roofing, Sacramento, Calif.
Photos: Mark Luthringer