Foundry Square is a complex of four architecturally-linked, 10-story mid-rise buildings located at Howard and First Streets in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco, California.[1] Each of the four buildings stands on a different corner of the street.
The project's first phase, Foundry Square II and Foundry Square IV, was completed in 2002. Each building is a mixed-use structure which 1,200,000 square feet (110,000 m2) of interior space. The design team included STUDIOS Architecture, Jim Jennings Architecture, Page & Turnbull, Webcor Builders, and landscape architect SWA Group. The developer was Wilson Equity Office (now Wilson Meany Sullivan). Current tenants include the law firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and the headquarters of Gymboree.[2]
The third building, Foundry Square I, was completed in 2007.
A unique feature of the site was SWA Group's concept for using each of the 1,000 square feet (93 m2) contained within Foundry Square's four open corners to form a larger, unified public square. Each building's 200-foot (61 m) dual-glaze glass walls frame the square, establishing an arcade that defines the transition between interior building space and public exterior spaces. The four corners of the intersection are integrated by the use of public art and sculpture (such as Richard Deutsch's "Time Signature" stainless steel sculpture),[3] tree bosques, ground-floor cafes, and over-scaled pots. The project earned SWA Group the ASLA Northern California Chapter Merit Award in 2006.[4]