Mission Bay and San Francisco’s Future
235 BERRY STREET
Designed by Leddy Maytum Stacy (LMS) and completed in 2006, this building has 99 condominium units. The architects have enlivened the street front by varying the materials and detailing of the facade.
The rose colored sections of the walls are rain screens. The name describes their function: to provide a screen to prevent water, particularly wind-driven rain, from entering exterior walls where it can become a serious problem. The cavity between the outer screen and the wall proper provides both thermal insulation and ventilation.
According to Richard Stacy the LMS partner in charge of the building’s design, rain screens have often been used in Europe and in the Pacific northwest and Canada, which have long rainy seasons. Since they are not much used here, their cost is higher, which limited their use to certain areas of the building. “We wanted to create a layered facade that had a clearly defined front planar screen,” Stacy explained. “The first and second townhouse floors are set back for privacy and landscaping. The sixth and seventh floors are also set back because the Redevelopment Agency guidelines called for reducing the visual height and scale of the street wall. So the screen was limited to the third, fourth, and fifth floors. The red screen walls are made of Swisspearl, an integrally colored fiber-cement board made in Europe.”
The rain screen cavity wall is shown projecting from the facade. Rain screens are also defining features of the west and south walls.
The Berry Street buildings have private courtyard gardens atop the underground garages. Below is a photograph of the podium garden of 235 Berry Street, designed by Marta Fry’s firm, MFLA, followed by the ground floor plan of the building, which also shows the courtyard.
