Skip Main Links
Oyster Development Portfolio building viewed from opposite corner. A glass building with white seams and orange accents
Oyster Development Portfolio

The Value in Design Excellence

Client

Oyster Development Corporation

Project Location

San Francisco, CA

Area

742,000 SF

Total Projects

4

In 2008, we designed Arterra in San Francisco for Intracorp. In 2009, Dean Givas, who formerly led Intracorp’s San Francisco office, resurrected his own firm: Oyster Development Corporation. This group has since partnered with our firm on multiple successful multifamily projects in Northern California.

These projects contributed to the changing housing market in San Francisco. Focusing on mid-rise to high rise, our firm has been able to realize the vision of Oyster Development for multiple projects. The success of the partnership has resulted in the design and build of a portfolio with distinct projects with their own respective personalities. Each with its own specific story and linked by threads that tie all the projects together.

Mid/High-Rise Housing

Our portfolio includes Arterra, Vida, Marlow, and Rockwell – all presenting their own respective personalities with one common over arching goal: driving value through design while elevating the resident experience.



01
Adaptive Reuse

The Rockwell

The corner at Pine and Franklin was formerly littered with abandoned, historic buildings, a holdover from the days when the area was known as San Francisco’s Auto Row. Above street level sits a modern design that, in a single structure, captures a century of advancement. The Rockwell is a pair of 13-story towers that incorporate the facades of two historic buildings. With over 440,000 SF, the project features 260 residential units, a solarium, 4,000 SF of retail space, various resident amenity spaces, and enclosed courtyard. Our firm worked with preservationists to restore the historic Auto Row facades to their early-20th century state and, in so doing, gives residents and passersby alike a glimpse of the neighborhood as it once stood.

The adjacent brick building, labeled Rockwell, at night. Arched glass entry to white hall with sculptural hanging light

Preservationists to restore the historic Auto Row facades to their early-20th century state.

Courtyard with rectangular fire pit and wooden benches with string lights. Trees to left and back, right, glass double doors

Above street level, a courtyard is nestled between the 13-story towers.

02
New Construction

The Marlow

Coming out of the Great Recession and into Summer 2010, Oyster Development Corp. acquired a plot of land on San Francisco’s busy Van Ness Avenue. This would be the first condominium land sale in roughly two years, and, bucking the trend, a development planned outside the burgeoning, up-and-coming South of Market area. Marlow sits at the intersection of three established neighborhoods and was built to accommodate the changing needs of the city’s residents. The façade presents a collection of units rather than an array of windows in a plane.

Corner view of building with large windows and black base below white wrapped facade upper levels and awning patterning wall

Marlow is an eight-story, multi-family development, one of the first after a recession that virtually shut down all new residential projects in San Francisco.

Side of building with white wrapped facade on left, glass facade to right with balconies in stepped arrangement

The design embraces a unitized vocabulary that gives each unit a distinct identity.

03
Urban Infill

Vida

Far before Vida was planned, the Mission district was deeply embroiled in regional tensions regarding demographic change. Especially in the Mission, demand for housing is high, availability of housing is low, and models for culturally-sensitive development are few and far between. Our design draws from the historic marquee of the adjacent New Mission Theater as a welcoming gesture and to create a sense of place, playing off the marquee’s strong architectural element

The Vida building with white and glass facade, orange and yellow accents. Vertical stripes down building create angled waves

The building totals 140,000 SF.

Seating in black and white room with wood sliding doors, right, to lounge. Orange and yellow geometric mural on far wall

Vida is an eight-story, 144-unit condominium with commercial space built into the ground floor.

Awards

2017 Grand Award: Best Multifamily Housing Community-100 du/acre or more

Gold Nugget Awards

2017 Award of Merit: Residential Housing Project of the Year - Attached Product

Gold Nugget Awards

2016 Best Architectural Design of an Attached Community - Silver Award

National Association of Home Builders

2015 Award of Merit: Best Multifamily Housing

Gold Nugget Awards

2015 Architecture Merit Award

AIA San Francisco

Contact Us

Contact Us

  • Ready for the latest updates, delivered right to your inbox? By checking Subscribe, you agree to receive DLR Group’s weekly newsletter.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

;