A new address on the Embarcadero

Sited between the masonry buildings of the historic waterfront and the modern towers of the Financial and Transbay districts, One Steuart Lane captures the best of both worlds—providing a refined urban living environment with incredible views of San Francisco and the Bay. The tower contains 120 residential units on 20 floors, with interior layouts seamlessly flowing from one space to the next, minimizing circulation and always drawing the eye to views outside. The architecture and interior finishes are designed to be both effortless and luxurious, with warm, natural materials and minimal, modern details.

Designed within the constraints of a complex zoning envelope, the architectural massing of the building strategically integrates private outdoor balconies and terraces with required setbacks to provide seamless indoor-outdoor living spaces. The locations of the outdoor spaces are coordinated to break down the vertical orientation of the tower into horizontally-proportioned volumes that relate to the panoramic waterfront landscape they face.

Elegance with intent

The facade is composed of an elegantly proportioned, shifting grid of roman travertine pilasters and lintels. The depth of the stone grid gives the building an appearance of solidity when viewed obliquely, while preserving views from within the units. A minimally reflective, ultra-clear glass facade takes advantage of San Francisco’s abundant sunlight and cool ambient climate,  passively heating the units and reducing energy consumption.

The tower’s form gradually steps back on alternating sides from the street to the sky. Large wraparound terraces carve the massing into a series of three- and four-story volumes, and recessed balconies on each intervening floor create visual interest and variety in the residential layouts. The building is clad in a slender, variegated grid of silver travertine sourced from Tuscany. While there is a classical solidity to the stone, its use in thin bands preserves views from within the building. Concealed behind the stone, a high-performance aluminum structure secures the facade.

Engineered for exceptional views

To maximize views, SOM architects and engineers worked closely together to create a design that interweaves terraces with cantilevered floor slabs. The structural design eliminates the need for large perimeter columns, allowing the residential units to be enclosed in floor-to-ceiling glass. The largest windows are nearly eight feet wide and over nine feet high, both insulated and laminated for thermal and acoustic performance.

Every fourth floor, bay-facing residences are enclosed with enormous structural-glass sliding doors—some as much as 16-feet wide by almost 10-feet high—which separate at the corner, opening the units to their wraparound terraces. Gradually tapered concrete slabs project as much as 20 feet from the interior columns toward the glass. In these indoor-outdoor spaces, the interior and exterior floor and ceiling are flush, creating an immaculate field of view.