Parkmerced, San Francisco, California

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Parkmerced, the largest neighborhood of apartment blocks west of the Mississippi River, is a planned neighborhood of high-rise apartment towers and low-rise garden apartments in southwestern San Francisco, California for middle income tenants. It contains 3,480 residences and over 8,000 residents, and is one of four remaining privately owned large scale garden apartment complexes in the United States.[1]. The complex is located south of San Francisco State University (SFSU), west of 19th Avenue, and east of Lake Merced and the Harding Park Golf Club. The far western boundary of the neighborhood extends to the SFSU campus, and the neighborhood is popular with students and faculty there due to its close proximity.

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[edit] Design and history

The apartment towers were designed and built by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, after their success with the Parkchester development in New York City. Construction started in the 1941, but was slowed due to World War II. The first tenants moved into the Font Boulevard buildings in early 1944. The development was completed in the 1950s and was a first home to many military families returning from the Second World War and the Korean War. Metropolitan Life built similar apartment blocks in other large cities, including Park La Brea in Los Angeles and Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan. Parkmerced's overall layout, designed by Leonard Schultze, features similar architecture and street layout similar to Park La Brea. Parkmerced's landscaping was designed by Thomas Dolliver Church and Robert Royston.[1]

Metlife owned and carefully maintained the property until the 1980s, when it sold it to Leona Helmsley and the property began to deteriorate.[1] There were a succession of owners and management companies beginning in the late 1990s. The commercial areas of the development were sold off to investors, and other parts sold to the California State University system.[1] As of 2008, 116 of the original 192 acres are owned and maintained by a single investor, who purchased the property for $700 million and invested $110 million in upgrades.[1] It is currently marketed as The Villas Parkmerced.

[edit] Transportation

Bus service through Parkmerced primarily is provided by the San Francisco Municipal Railway 17 Parkmerced route, and peak-hour service to and from Balboa Park Subway Station is provided by the 88 BART Shuttle line. Additionally, the 28, 28L and 29 bus routes, as well as the Muni Metro M Ocean View light-rail line, operate along nearby 19th Avenue, and 18 46th Avenue bus line runs on Lake Merced Boulevard.

[edit] Ongoing construction and development plans

The Villas Parkmerced are in the middle of an ongoing reconstruction campaign. Current projects include replacing old elevators, remodeling entrances to the towers, applying wooden window frames to the garden townhomes, new mailbox units, as well as painting the outsides of all the buildings through 2009. The Villas recently acquired their own Saturday morning Farmer's Market, which takes place on the western meadow of the neighborhood.

Along with aesthetic changes being made to the public spaces in the neighborhood, vacant tower apartments are also seeing heavy renovations. These include new stainless steel appliances, granite marble counter tops, laminate flooring, & "wooden" cabinets.

The owners and managers of the various parts of ParkMerced recently proposed a major redevelopment, which would involve demolishing the garden apartments in favor of higher density replacements, and reconfiguring the streets. The proposal is opposed by preservationists because of the significance of the landscape design.[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e Aaron Goodman. Parkmerced, San Francisco, California: “A City Within a City”- A modern landscape and urban planning masterpiece at risk. Cultural Landscape Foundation.
  2. ^ Dave Weinstein. "Parkmerced: Symbol of future or the past?", San Francisco Chronicle, May 3, 2008. 

[edit] External links