syncopated architecture

355 Laguna Street

Working to solve the housing crisis one building at a time is a great passion of ours. When the Accessory Dwelling program was introduced in San Francisco, we jumped at the chance to convert underutilized garages, storage spaces, and utility rooms into new apartments. Now, 4 years later, our small team has designed over 275 new rent-controlled apartments in San Francisco using this program. This project, at 355 Laguna was one of our first. Here, we converted (6) garages into (2) new accessory dwelling units, including a 1-bedroom unit, and a 2-bed/2 bath unit.

We love featuring these projects. Many people believe accessory dwelling units are shoeboxes, or undesirable. Others simply can’t imagine how dirty, ugly garages and utility rooms can be transformed into such beautiful living space, but the transformation is real.

We invite you to take a virtual tour of these two units. What do you think?
Unit 10: real.vision/355-laguna-street-10
Unit 11: real.vision/355-laguna-st-10

Credits

• Photography:

  • Real Vision
    real.vision

• Structural Engineer:

  • Darren Wong Engineering
    415-570-1636
    dwongengineer@gmail.com

• General Contractor:

  • Ted Elms
    415-385-9735
    sfsoftstory.us

• 
• As a Class A historic resource, the removal of the garage doors and replacement of the windows had to meet rigid preservation standards. The garage doors are not considered a “character defining feature”, so removing them and infilling with brick to match and new windows that are consistent with the architecture above was a great solution for this project. And the existing windows fronting onto Oak Street were replaced to match the existing, without modifications to the size or location of the openings.
• It’s hard to believe these windows are in the same place in this before and after image, but these pictures show the transformative power of reimagining utility rooms and garages. What was once a dirty storage room and garage is now a beautiful, light-filled bedroom.
• Shown here, you can see that where we removed the garage doors and sheet metal wall surfacing, we installed new windows facing the street, allowing light to pour into the new living spaces.
• We know it’s difficult to look at this before picture and see a beautiful unit. That’s why we’re showing you here!
• Our rule of thumb on ADU projects is that (2) garage stalls create (1) studio apartment. At this site, because we had a corner site with the opportunity of installing windows on 3 sides of the building, we converted (6) parking stalls into (2) large 2-bedroom/2-bathroom units with direct access to the lobby for an improved sense of security and access to the shared building amenities.