Winners for an ideas competition to create a zero net energy building in one of San Francisco’s poorer neighborhoods were announced Friday.
The Architecture at Zero competition, sponsored by the San Francisco chapter of the American Institute of Architects and Pacific Gas and Electric Co., tasked participants to develop a zero net energy mixed-use building, including affordable housing units, in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood. The competition, in its third year, partnered with the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corp. Prior years have involved sites in Merced and Emeryville, Calif.
The competition’s 22,341 square-foot site, currently a parking lot, is located only a few blocks from San Francisco’s Market Street. The downtown neighborhood, despite its proximity to City Hall and tony shopping district Union Square, has a persistently high crime and poverty rate.
The jury for the competition included Kansas City, Mo.-based BNIM Architects’ Bob Berkebile, FAIA, Architecture 2030’s Ed Mazria, AIA, Architectural Record‘s Cathleen McGuigan, National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Paul Torcellini, and Paulett Taggart, FAIA, of local firm Paulett Taggart Architects.
Here are the six winning designs, which were awarded a total of $25,000 in prizes.
