Ground was broken today for a 32-story tower and accompanying low-rise affordable development on Block 6 of the Transbay site on Folsom Street in San Francisco. The tower will house 409 market-rate apartments, and the adjoining eight-story building will provide 70 units of affordable housing. Designed to be LEED Gold-Certified, sustainable features of Block 6 will include solar thermal panels, a resident-controlled cross-ventilation system, and sky parks on every third floor. Occupancy is expected by December 2015.

The project is part of the redevelopment of the area around the former Transbay bus terminal, which was demolished to make way for a much larger, multimodal facility capped by what will become San Francisco’s tallest building, the Transbay Tower.  Santos Prescott and Associates is the design architect for the mid-rise affordable project, which will include a community room and retail space on the corner of Folsom and Beale Streets.