Foster + Partners' the Dogpatch Power Station has broken ground in San Francisco. The new plans aim to create thousands of new homes for San Francisco neighborhood and to honor its industrial past and reconnect the local community to the San Francisco Bay waterfront.

Named The Dogpatch Power Station, the new scheme will contain new homes, hotels, restaurants, cafes and shops, with seven acres of parkland and open space.

The project is aimed at creating a vibrant new waterfront district and reconnecting it with the rest of the city for the first time in over a century and a half. Foster + Partners' new scheme will convert a decommissioned power station into a new mixed-use sustainable neighborhood. 

"This project offers a unique opportunity to reinvigorate an erstwhile industrial quarter and infuse new life into this part of San Francisco," said Armstrong Yakubu, Senior Partner, Foster + Partners.

"Our proposals will deliver much-needed homes guided by a design approach that is underpinned by people, sustainability and community, and rooted in the rich history of the place." 

"Our aim is to give Dogpatch an ideal urban framework to help create a vibrant, healthy and inclusive 21st century live/work community," added Yakubu.

The former industrial site is bounded by the Dogpatch neighborhood on one side and the waterfront on the other. According to the studio, the overall masterplan for the area "aims to stitch the site with the existing neighborhood, reconnecting people with the waterfront, and reenergizing the site with much needed homes, parks, and jobs." 

Foster + Partners has designed two residential-led mixed-use buildings at the heart of the site. The buildings will seek to recreate an inclusive and diverse live/work community that includes affordable housing.

For design scheme, the studio is inspired by the traditional courtyards and alleyways in the area, so the buildings are arranged around a central open space at ground level. 

The ground level will include retail and local amenities such as day-care centers and parcel delivery areas. Pedestrian and cycle routes are arranged through these spaces, creating new connections with the surrounding areas. 

"With several shared social spaces and co-working areas, the lower floors of the buildings are envisaged as a hive of activity throughout the day," added the studio.

The design is highlighted with a series of interconnected two-story elements within a modular organizational grid that allows for complete flexibility – both spatially and programmatically. The blocks will come together as a dynamic assembly of stepped blocks. 

The apartments have been carefully designed to maximize fresh air, natural light and access to the green landscaped terraces that travel up through the building. The new neighborhood park is connected both visually and physically with the garden roof terraces overlooking the bay.

All images courtesy of Foster + Partners.

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