Coming to the Mission: Pimp My Auto Body Shop

November 3rd, 2009

Click the image above to view the full photogallery.

This nine-unit adaptive reuse project was approved last week for 3135 24th St in the Mission, a former auto body shop. Planning commissioners dug Y.A. Studio's "innovative" design, which - beyond simply tacking two more floors on top of the existing two-story structure - allows for flats, two-story units, and three-story units. (One commissioner even suggested the project be used as a "prototype" for similar ones around the city.) Also, according to the project sponsor, computer modeling shows that the "roof line is invisible" to the average-height person, set back from the street frontage as it is- the kind of thing that tends to set preservation-minded heads nodding in approval. The neighborhood appears to be pretty stoked about the ground floor, which is set for what's being called the Mission Independent Retail Collective, a sort of small business incubator modeled after ActivSpace at 18th and Treat. Fun fact! The previous owner of the project (and auto shop) was known to locals as the Mad Russian, and he could apparently fix up a mean body. Construction's planned for January, to be finished within a year.
· From Auto Repair Shop to New Housing [Mission Loc@l]