ART COOPERATIVE INFILL

This is a competition design for new housing at the corner of Market Street and Octavia Boulevard. Responding to the ever-escalating housing prices that forces artists to leave the City, the ArtCOOP offers live/work housing in a cooperative setting. The American Academy in San Francisco, modeled after the famous one in Rome, features a prominent corner building that is a combination of cafe, bookstore, gallery and housing and studio space for visiting artists from all over the world. A large outdoor performance courtyard space links the two groups of artists in a public venue. The form of the building responds both to the new Octavia Boulevard and Haight Street with heights, setbacks and bay windows that relate to neighborhood patterns.