In San Francisco’s South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood, where the average price of a home is $858,000, innovative design joined creative financing to speed production of a 145-unit permanent housing complex for the formerly unhoused. “The architecture has a lot of things that are unique about it,” says Daniel Simons, principal in charge at local firm David Baker Architects (DBA), which designed the building, Tahanan Supportive Housing. “But a lot of the uniqueness is the process, the goals that were set, the financing, and figuring it all out.”

Tahanan, in the SoMa neighborhood (above), has a zigzagging facade that lends variety to the long and linear structure (top). Photo © Bruce Damonte, click to enlarge.