A fritted-Glass wall conceals a scarred facade and makes an old gem glow.

Bay Area architects see their affordable housing work as part of a long tradition of progressive culture and urbanism. That concern can spawn buildings where the aesthetic goal is to fade into the background—as is the case with many San Francisco affordable-housing projects from the 1980s and ’90s. Now, especially in more transitional districts, there’s a desire to make a splash, not just among bureaucrats or architects, but nonprofit developers who often represent a new generation of decision-makers. Photo ''Brian Rose One of Baker’s frequent clients is Citizens Housing Corporation, a 16-year-old company that has 23 complexes in the Bay

High-profile buildings by big names aside, new buildings in San Francisco and the Bay Area tend to be nondescript—especially the infill housing projects that often look like nothing so much as interchangeable product wrapped in unimaginative garb.

Buffeted by criticism of its modern look and trophy-like setting, Gap founder Donald Fisher has agreed to redesign and move a museum that he wants to build in San Francisco’s Presidio, a 1,491-acre national park. Image courtesy Gluckman Mayner Gluckman Mayner has designed an art museum for the Presidio, a national park and former army base in San Francisco. There’s no assurance the changes announced in December will placate the project’s opponents. And it’s a twist nobody would have predicted in December of 2007, when members of the city’s cultural establishment praised the unveiling of what Fisher calls the Contemporary