750 Second Street Residences

Located in a former light-industrial neighborhood near the Giants ballpark in San Francisco, the mid-rise residences at 750 Second Street occupy an unusually tight site where the garden area is accessible by a single, ground-floor unit.

GLS’ solution, a stepped stormwater garden, is not only visually pleasing to all units, ground-floor and above, it acts as a “machine” for processing roofwater before it enters the city’s water supply, without using pumps and chemicals. Rainwater is captured in a glass tiled basin and slowly released, a drop at a time, over a period of days, into basalt vessels. This process converts even a brief rainstorm into a seasonal fountain. During the dry portion of the year, the fountain goes dormant but is a visual reminder of water’s return. The richly textured landscape uses paperbark maples matched with native California basalt, cast glass cylinders, tempered glass rails, bush-hammered concrete, and plate steel walls. The project is certified LEED Gold.