Revitalizing Sunnydale
Swinerton recently delivered a new mass timber community center for the Sunnydale neighborhood of San Francisco. The project marks a milestone in the community redevelopment master plan—and has made a positive impact in the lives of the local workforce.
In southeastern San Francisco, a multi-phase redevelopment project is reshaping the future of a public housing community. Sunnydale HOPE SF is a long-term plan to redevelop and revitalize the dynamic and diverse community of Sunnydale, which over 1,700 residents call home.
Once a thriving military housing neighborhood, decades of disinvestment have left the barracks-style, WWII-era apartment buildings in disrepair. A Development Agreement between the master developer, Sunnydale Development Co., LLC, the City of San Francisco, and the San Francisco Housing Authority—who owns the site—will rehabilitate the community with a mix of housing types for various income levels, safe and hospitable community-focused spaces, and quality-of-life amenities that Sunnydale residents have lacked.
A key milestone in this master plan is the Sunnydale Community Center, a recently completed collaboration between Swinerton and mass timber affiliate Timberlab. Located at the heart of the redeveloped neighborhood, the 30,000-square-foot mass timber building features vital community spaces such as a study areas and multi-purpose rooms. Combined with the adjacent Herz Recreation Center, the project creates a new campus hub that supports community connection. The center will also include new facilities for the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco and Wu Yee Children’s Services who will operate youth, family support, and early childhood education services out of this center, greatly expanding the capacity of both organizations to provide top-tier childcare and programming for nearly 80 neighborhood youth.
Shaping the Future with Mass Timber Construction
While value engineering was provided throughout preconstruction of the project, the cornerstone of the project team’s efforts was the mass timber structural system. Swinerton collaborated with the design team and the owner to evaluate a traditional steel structure compared to the engineered wood material, and determined that a switch to mass timber was cost-neutral. Timber structures are lighter, reducing the foundations which shortened the construction schedule. As an inherently biophilic and aesthetic building material, mass timber can be exposed for wellness benefits, and to reduce the quantity of required finishes.
The final structural design for the Sunnydale Community Center leverages glulam posts and beams, with CLT floor panels and a sloping CLT roof. The design showcases mass timber brace frames in key locations with framed, glazed openings, allowing for more access to daylight and views. The mass timber beams and girders are also exposed and visible where the programming calls for longer spans, demonstrating timber’s structural capabilities and also adding a natural wood architectural element to the space.
The timber was sourced from the Pacific Northwest and fabricated by Timberlab. With the entire Hope SF Sunnydale masterplan conditionally approved at the LEED Gold® level, the mass timber Sunnydale Community Center marks a key milestone on Sunnydale’s path to achieve its goal of LEED for Neighborhood Development. Mass timber has the ability to sequester carbon dioxide (CO2), and on average, produces up to 50% fewer CO2 emissions than concrete and steel buildings.
Building Up the Communities We Build In
Not only does the community center bring transformative community spaces to the Sunnydale neighborhood, but the project itself significantly impacted the local workforce positively. As a company, Swinerton strives to award 20% of its subcontracting volume to small, local, and diverse business enterprises. The Sunnydale Community Center project achieved a notable 33% participation, with 17 small and diverse business enterprises contracted. Of these, seven were hyperlocal business enterprises.
Additionally, through the project’s Sunnydale Resident Hiring Program, 12 local residents were hired onto the project and sponsored for trade unions and apprenticeships.
Swinerton and Timberlab are proud to have collaborated with the City of San Francisco and other partners on the pivotal Sunnydale Community Center project. The new mass timber hub provides much-needed community spaces and amenities to local residents, and the project itself contributed opportunities for the local economy and workforce. This underscores Swinerton’s goal to be a responsible community partner, creating enduring opportunities ourselves, our trade partners, and our communities.
